assign
/əˈsaɪn/ (bre, ipa) · [əsˈaɪn] /əˈsaɪn/ (ame, ipa) · [əsˈaɪn] /ə-ˈsīn/ (ame, mw)
assign — verb
- assignpresent simple I / you / we / they
- assignshe / she / it
- assignedpast simple
- assigning-ing form
1. to choose a person and give them a specific task, job, or duty to carry out
to choose a person and give them a specific task, job, or duty to carry out
Brandon's manager assigned him the task of checking all the customer order forms.
assign + [person] + [task] (double-object pattern)
The head teacher assigned lunch duty to three new staff members.
assign + [task] + to + [person]
Ayana was assigned the lead role in the local school play.
Volunteers from Oakwood were each assigned a different section of Riverside Park to clean before the fair.
The editor assigned the missing-person story to Yael, trusting her interview skills.
- withdraw
take back a task or responsibility that was given
文法句型
assign + someone + something
assign + something + to + someone
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 5 (SEND ON DUTY): sense 1 is about handing out a task to someone, not about sending them to a different location.
常見錯誤
2. to pick a particular date or time when a meeting, task, or event should take pla
to pick a particular date or time when a meeting, task, or event should take place
The Crown Court in Leeds assigned the 15th of March for the next hearing in the long-running fraud case.
assign + [date] + for + [event]
Minho's driving test has been assigned for Tuesday morning at eight thirty.
The wedding planner assigned three hours on Saturday for putting up the decorations.
The facilities manager assigned the first full week in August for moving the entire finance department to the new building.
The university exam board assigned Wednesday morning, the 12th of June, for the final written paper in organic chemistry.
文法句型
assign + time/date + for + event
用法筆記
Object is always a time, date, or time period. Common in official or institutional contexts such as courts, exams, and meetings.
常見錯誤
3. to say that a particular quality, value, or label belongs to someone or somethin
to say that a particular quality, value, or label belongs to someone or something — for example, giving a film five stars or marking a document as confidential
The judges assigned a perfect score to Lucía's final dance performance.
assign + [score/value] + to + [thing judged]
The Booker Prize panel assigned high value to Ruth Ozeki's latest novel, though readers found it slow.
Putri's teacher assigned a grade A to her science project on rainforest ecosystems.
The Bath Preservation Trust assigned the old assembly rooms a Grade II listed status in 2023.
Geologists from the Tokyo institute assigned a high tsunami risk rating to the coastal villages after the 2024 Noto earthquake.
文法句型
assign + quality/value + to + something
用法筆記
Object is always a quality, score, label, or value — never a physical object. Often used when official bodies or experts make a formal judgement.
常見錯誤
4. to name what you believe caused a situation or to give the reason why something
to name what you believe caused a situation or to give the reason why something happened, often after careful thought or investigation
The investigator assigned the fire to faulty wiring in the basement laundry room.
assign + [cause] + to + [event]
Doctors assigned Reuben's chest pains to stress rather than a heart condition.
The internal audit assigned the 12 percent drop in sales to the new rival chain's aggressive discount pricing.
Oxford historians have assigned the collapse of the Khmer Empire to a mix of prolonged drought and weak leadership.
The mechanic assigned the strange engine noise to a worn timing belt.
文法句型
assign + cause/reason + to + event
用法筆記
Often passive. The subject can be a person, a report, or a study. Distinguish from sense 3 (ATTRIBUTE QUALITY): this sense is about causes and reasons, not about scores or characteristics.
常見錯誤
5. to send a staff member or official to a new location or team so they can carry o
to send a staff member or official to a new location or team so they can carry out specific duties there, usually for a set period
The army assigned Cyrus to a remote base in the northern mountains for six months.
assign + [person] + to + [place]
The newspaper assigned Mathieu to cover the elections from the capital.
Two detectives were assigned to the fraud case after the bank reported the losses.
Tomás was assigned to the company's Singapore office to lead the new sales team.
The aid agency assigned Kian to the flood-affected villages along the river delta.
- recall
bring someone back from a post or assignment
文法句型
assign + someone + to + place/role
用法筆記
Object is always a person. Frequently passive: 'she was assigned to a new post.' Distinguish from sense 1 (ALLOCATE TASK): this sense involves physically sending someone to a different place or team.
常見錯誤
6. to put a number or piece of data into a named slot inside a computer program's w
to put a number or piece of data into a named slot inside a computer program's working memory
The program assigns the value zero to every new variable before running the calculation.
assign + [value] + to + [variable] (computing)
When Priya registered for the library's online portal, the system assigned a unique 10-digit ID number to her profile.
After adding all twelve item prices, the checkout script assigned the total to a variable called 'total_cost'.
New programmers get confused when Python assigns one list to two variables — changing one silently changes the other.
The operating system assigns each running program a separate block of memory.
- set
more common in everyday programming talk; 'set the variable to zero'
- store
focuses on the act of keeping data in memory rather than the naming of a location
- initialise
specifically means giving a variable its first value at the start of a program
- clear
remove a value from a variable or memory location
文法句型
assign + value + to + variable
用法筆記
Domain-specific (computing). The subject is typically a program, a function, or an operating system. The object is always a value being stored, and the target is a variable or memory location.
7. to officially hand over your ownership of property, money, or legal claims to an
to officially hand over your ownership of property, money, or legal claims to another person through a written agreement
Dr. Okonkwo assigned the patent rights for her water-purification device to the University of Lagos, which had funded the research.
assign + [rights/property] + to + [recipient] (legal)
Grandma Zhang assigned her house and its contents to my uncle before she passed away.
In her will, folk singer Elena Vasquez assigned half the royalties from her 1998 album to a children's hospital in Santiago.
The printing company assigned the remaining seven years of its warehouse lease to a furniture startup needing the space.
Kian assigned the copyright of all his travel photographs — over two thousand images — to the National Library's public collection.
文法句型
assign + property/rights + to + someone
用法筆記
Domain-specific (legal and financial). The transfer is formal and recorded. The object is always a right, a piece of property, or a financial interest — never a physical object being handed over in person.