# delegate

/ˈdɛɫəˌɡeɪt/ (US)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/delegate
Updated: 2026-06-20

## Senses

### 1. a representative

noun · CEFR B2

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

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

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

verb · CEFR B2

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

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

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

### 3. programming reference

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

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

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

- The programmer used a delegate to handle the event when the user clicked the button.
- By using a delegate, the developer decoupled the event-handling logic from the core user interface components, improving the code's maintainability.

### 4. network authority

verb · CEFR C1 · Technical

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

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

- The company decided to delegate the blog subdomain to a specialized hosting provider.
- To improve performance, the IT department delegated the regional subdomains to local servers located closer to the end users.

## Examples

- Each country sent a delegate to the climate conference.
- The union members elected a delegate to present their list of demands to the management board during the annual meeting.
- After hours of heated debate, the lead delegate from the small island nation managed to secure a compromise that protected their local fishing rights.

---

From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.