delegate

adj

Etymology: 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.

1. delegated
2. Acting as a delegate, delegated; of, pertaining to a delegate

name

1. A locality in the Snowy Monaro council area, south eastern New South Wales, Australia.

noun

Etymology: 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.

1. A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.
2. A representative at a conference, etc.
3. An appointed representative in some legislative bodies.
4. A type of variable storing a reference to a method with a particular signature, analogous to a function pointer.

   “Historically, all viable frameworks have always provided a mechanism to implement callbacks. C# goes one step further and encapsulates callbacks into callable objects called delegates.”

5. A member of a governmental legislature who lacks voting power.

   “The house of delegates in apartheid-era South Africa lacked any real voting power.”

verb

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

1. To commit tasks and responsibilities to others, especially subordinates.

   “New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was perceived to delegate effectively. Wayne Mapp, a minister under Key observed he had 'a different style than the traditional style of New Zealand political management. He delegates in the manner of a chief executive, and lets ministers get on with their jobs' (Mapp 2014).”

2. To commit (a task or responsibility) to someone, especially a subordinate.

   “The war on Covid-19 was delegated to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, a paralysed NHS and scientists publicly feuding over dud data.”

3. (of a subdomain) To give away authority over a subdomain; to allow someone else to create sub-subdomains of a subdomain of one's own.