signify
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English signifien, from Old French signifier, from Latin significare.
Inflected forms:
form: signifies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: signifying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: signified
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: signified
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: To create a sign out of something.
pos: verb
gloss: To give (something) a meaning or an importance.
pos: verb
gloss: To show one’s intentions with a sign etc.; to indicate, announce, or portend.
pos: verb
examples: I’ll to the king; and signify to him / That thus I have resign’d my charge to you.
For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.
In my humble Opinion, it would be no unseasonable Condescension, if the Government would Graciously please to signify to the pour loyal Protestant Subjects of Ireland, either that this miserable Want of Silver, is not possible to be remedy’d in any Degree […] or else, that it doth not stand with the good Pleasure of England, to suffer any Silver at all among us.
Tapping at the window, he signified that she should open the casement, and when she had done this he handed in the key to her.
“Do you want to write a cheque, Granny?” The old eyes signified assent.
gloss: To mean; to betoken.
pos: verb
examples: Life’s […] a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.
Mrs Varden was a lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper—a phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper tolerably certain to make everybody more or less uncomfortable.
Leaning over, she gives Uncle Oscar a furious affectionate pat which signifies that he is a good fellow and we all love him. It also signifies that he can shut up.
There are three messages which can be sent by means of the convolvulus. A white one signifies Why are you fleeing me? A pink one signifies I shall bind myself to you. A blue one signifies I shall wait for better days.
gloss: To make a difference; to matter (in negative or interrogative expressions).
pos: verb
examples: To be but in the company of those we love, satisfies us: it does not signify whether we speak to ’em or not, whether we think on them or on indifferent things. To be near ’em is all.
VVell ſays I, and are you thus eaſy? ay, ſays ſhe, I can’t help myſelf, vvhat ſignifyes being ſad? If I am hang’d there’s an End of me, ſays ſhe, and avvay ſhe turns Dancing, and Sings as ſhe goes, […]
I told her it was not I that broke her window, but it did not signify; so she dragged me to the light, lugging and scratching me all the while, and then said she would inform against me […]
Well, it does not signify complaining, but there are three things for which I am much to be pitied, if any one thought it worth while to waste any compassion upon me.
Alice looked at the jury-box, and saw that, in her haste, she had put the Lizard in head downwards,[…]. She soon got it out again, and put it right; “not that it signifies much,” she said to herself; “I should think it would be quite as much use in the trial one way up as the other.”
“He was Charles. You can read it there. Charles Hale.” / “That don’t signify,” Ida said. “A man always has a different name for strangers. […]”
Synonyms: mean
betoken
import
Derived words: consignify
foresignify
missignify
nonsignifying
oversignify
plurisignify
plurisignifying
resignify
signifiable
signifyin'
signifyin(g)
signifyingly
unsignified
unsignifying
Translations: