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delegate

B2
verbnoun

Pronunciation

UK

  • /ˈdɛlɪɡət/noun
  • /ˈdɛlɪˌɡeɪt/verb

US

  • /ˈdɛləˌɡeɪt/
  • /ˈdɛləɡət/

Description

Imagine you're the captain of a ship, but you can't steer and navigate and manage the crew all at once! You need to *delegate* – to assign tasks to trusted members of your team. That's what it means to delegate: entrusting someone else with responsibility for a specific job.

A politician might be a *delegate representing their constituents, meaning they're entrusted to act on behalf of the people who elected them. You can also delegate* authority – give someone the power to make decisions. If your boss asks you to handle a project while she's on vacation, she's delegating responsibility to you! It's about trusting others and sharing the workload.

Examples

  1. 1

    Administrative tasks

    She delegated the scheduling to her assistant.

  2. 2

    Workload management

    If your workload is too heavy, learn to delegate instead of doing everything yourself.

  3. 3

    Decision-making

    The company has delegated more decision-making to local teams.

    • Pattern

      delegate + task/power to + person/group

      give them the job or authority to handle it

  4. 4

    Responsibility

    He can delegate the task, but he still has to make sure it gets done.

  5. 5

    Conference representative

    Each branch sent a delegate to the national conference.

  6. 6

    Student representative

    She was elected as the student delegate for the meeting with the principal.

See also

verbto assign responsibility or authority to someone else

Similar

Shades of meaning

Contrast

Do not confuse

Used with (collocations)

  • delegate a task
  • delegate authority
  • delegate responsibility
  • delegate to someone

Word family

Explore

  • chain of command
  • accountability

Forms and spellings

4 forms open this card.

Main spelling

  • delegatenounverb

Forms

  • delegatespluralnounverb
  • delegatedpast tenseverbnoun
  • delegating-ing formverbnoun