resign Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb leave (a job, post, or position) voluntarily
    vacate; give up; renounce.
    • She vacated the position when she got pregnant
    • The chairman resigned when he was found to have misappropriated funds
  2. verb give up or retire from a position
    step down; quit; leave office.
    • The Secretary of the Navy will leave office next month
    • The chairman resigned over the financial scandal
  3. verb part with a possession or right
    release; relinquish; give up; free.
    • I am relinquishing my bedroom to the long-term house guest
    • resign a claim to the throne
  4. verb accept as inevitable
    submit; reconcile.
    • He resigned himself to his fate

WordNet

Re*sign" transitive verb
Etymology
F. résigner, L. resignare to unseal, annul, assign, resign; pref. re- re- + signare to seal, stamp. See Sign, and cf. Resignation.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Resigned present participle & verbal noun Resigning
Definitions
  1. To sign back; to return by a formal act; to yield to another; to surrender; -- said especially of office or emolument. Hence, to give up; to yield; to submit; -- said of the wishes or will, or of something valued; -- also often used reflexively.
    I here resign my government to thee. Shak.
    Lament not, Eve, but patiently resign What justly thou hast lost. Milton.
    What more reasonable, than that we should in all things resign up ourselves to the will of God? Tiilotson.
  2. To relinquish; to abandon.
    He soon resigned his former suit. Spenser.
  3. To commit to the care of; to consign. Obs.
    Gentlement of quality have been sent beyong the seas, resigned and concredited to the conduct of such as they call governors. Evelyn.
    Syn. -- To abdicate; surrender; submit; leave; relinquish; forego; quit; forsake; abandon; renounce. -- Resign, Relinquish. To resign is to give up, as if breaking a seal and yielding all it had secured; hence, it marks a formal and deliberate surrender. To relinquish is less formal, but always implies abandonment and that the thing given up has been long an object of pursuit, and, usually, that it has been prized and desired. We resign what we once held or considered as our own, as an office, employment, etc. We speak of relinquishing a claim, of relinquishing some advantage we had sought or enjoyed, of relinquishing seme right, privilege, etc. "Men are weary with the toil which they bear, but can not find it in their hearts to relinquish it." Steele. See Abdicate.

Webster 1913