assign

Etymology

From Middle English assignen, from Old French assigner, asigner, from Latin assignō, from ad- + signō (“mark, sign”).

verb

1. (transitive) To designate or set apart (something) for some purpose.
   to assign a day for trial
2. (transitive) To appoint or select (someone) for some office.
   to assign counsel for a prisoner
3. (transitive) To allot or give (something) as a task.
   “I cannot do it, Sir !” was his reply. “I fire into their ranks, and that does as well ; but to single out one among them, and mark him for death, would lie upon my mind afterwards.” The man who could feel thus was worthy of a better station than that in which his lot had been assigned. 1829, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More: Or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, volume I, London: John Murray, page 210
   He assigned his men to their several posts, talked boldly of maintaining himself against all the troops of Spain, and by his cheerful tone endeavoured to inspire a confidence in others which he was far from feeling himself. 1857, William Hickling Prescott, “War with France”, in History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, new edition, volume I, London: G. Routledge & Co., page 116
4. (transitive) To attribute or sort (something) into categories.
   1. (LGBT) To categorize (someone) as belonging to the male or female sex.
5. (transitive, law) To transfer (property, a legal right, etc.) from one person to another.
6. (transitive, programming) To give (a value) to a variable.
   We assign 100 to x.

noun

1. An assignee.
2. (obsolete) A thing relating or belonging to something else; an appurtenance.
3. (obsolete) An assignment or appointment.
4. (obsolete) A design or purpose.
   He aim’d at high designs, and so attain’d / The high assigns to which his spirit aim’d. 1609, John Ford, “Fame's Memorial: An Elegy upon the Earl of Devonshire”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 9