Assign, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Assigned; p. pr. & vb. n. Assigning.]
Etymology: [OE. assignen, asignen, F. assigner, fr. L. assignare; ad + signare to mark, mark out, designate, signum mark, sign. See Sign.]
1. To appoint; to allot; to apportion; to make over. In the order I assign to them. Loudon. The man who could feel thus was worthy of a better station than that in which his lot had been assigned. Southey. He assigned to his men their several posts. Prescott.
2. To fix, specify, select, or designate; to point out authoritatively or exactly; as, to assign a limit; to assign counsel for a prisoner; to assign a day for trial. All as the dwarf the way to her assigned. Spenser. It is not easy to assign a period more eventful. De Quincey.
3. (Law)
To transfer, or make over to another, esp. to transfer to, and vest in, certain persons, called assignees, for the benefit of creditors. To assign dower, to set out by metes and bounds the widow's share or portion in an estate. Kent.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Assign, n.
A thing pertaining or belonging to something else; an appurtenance. [Obs.] Six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdles, hangers, and so. Shak.
Assign, n.
(Law)
A person to whom property or an interest is transferred; as, a deed to a man and his heirs and assigns.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for assign; he lists it under allege, allot, apportion, attribute, commit.
Where he writes about it:
When an alleged criminal is brought to trial, the counsel on either side are accustomed to advance a theory, and adduce the strongest possible evidence in its support; they will produce documents and witnesses, cite precedents, assign reasons, introduce suggestions, offer pleas. — from allege
Allot may also refer to space; as, to allot a plot of ground for a cemetery; but we now oftener use select, set apart, or assign. — from allot
Assign is rarely used of time, but rather of places, persons, or things. — from allot
We assign a work to be done and assign a man to do it, who, if he fails, must assign a reason for not doing it. — from allot
To allot or assign may be to make an arbitrary division; the same is true of distribute or divide. — from apportion
Commit, in the sense here considered, is to give in charge, put into care or keeping; to confide or entrust is to commit especially to one's fidelity, confide being used chiefly of mental or spiritual, entrust also of material things; we assign a duty, confide a secret, entrust a treasure; we commit thoughts to writing; commit a paper to the flames, a body to the earth; a prisoner is committed to jail. — from commit