What does "delegate" mean?

1. (a representative) a person who is chosen to speak or vote for a group, especially at a large meeting or conference. 2. (to give tasks to others) to give part of your work, power, or responsibilities to someone else. 3. (programming reference) a type of variable that points to a specific function or method so it can be called later. 4. (network authority) to give control of a part of a website address to a different server.

How do you use "delegate"?

The verb is often used intransitively when describing a management style.

Is it correct to say "He delegated the report for his assistant."?

No — say "He delegated the report to his assistant.". You delegate a task 'to' a person, not 'for' them.

delegate

n. · v.

US //ˈdɛɫəˌɡeɪt// del·e·gate

1 a representative (n.)
B2 Upper Intermediate

a person who is chosen to speak or vote for a group, especially at a large meeting or conference.

a person authorized to act as a representative for another, typically within the context of a conference, political convention, or legislative body.

Example

Each country sent a delegate to the international climate summit to discuss the new treaty.

Example

The union delegates voted unanimously to reject the management's proposal, citing concerns over long-term job security and pension contributions.
2 to give tasks to others (v.)
B2 Upper Intermediate

to give part of your work, power, or responsibilities to someone else.

to entrust a task or responsibility to another person, typically one who is less senior than oneself.

Example

A good manager knows how to delegate tasks so they can focus on the big picture.

Example

The director was forced to delegate the final stages of the project to her deputy while she attended the emergency board meeting.

Usage

The verb is often used intransitively when describing a management style.
- retain
- keep
Pitfall

He delegated the report for his assistant.

He delegated the report to his assistant.

You delegate a task 'to' a person, not 'for' them.

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3 programming reference (n.)
C1 Advanced Technical Computing

a type of variable that points to a specific function or method so it can be called later.

a type of object that encapsulates a reference to a method with a specific signature, functioning similarly to a type-safe function pointer.

Example

The programmer used a delegate to handle the event when the user clicked the button.

Example

By using a delegate, the developer decoupled the event-handling logic from the core user interface components, improving the code's maintainability.
- pointer
- callback
4 network authority (v.)
C1 Advanced Technical Computing

to give control of a part of a website address to a different server.

to transfer authority over a subdomain to a different name server in the Domain Name System.

Example

The company decided to delegate the blog subdomain to a specialized hosting provider.

Example

To improve performance, the IT department delegated the regional subdomains to local servers located closer to the end users.
- assign
- transfer

Etymology 1

From Middle English delegat, from Old French delegat, from Latin dēlēgātus substantivized from the nominative masculine singular of dēlēgātus, the perfect passive participle of dēlēgō (“to send, assign, delegate”), see -ate (noun-forming suffix). See also legate.

Etymology 2

From the above noun by metanalysis or directly borrowed from Latin dēlēgātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

Etymology 3

From Middle English delegat(e) (“delegated”, used as a past participle and adjective), used as the past participle of delegate up until Early Modern English, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.