appoint

1 create and charge with a task or function; "nominate a committee" [syn: name, nominate, constitute]

2 assign a duty, responsibility or obligation to; "He was appointed deputy manager"; "She was charged with supervising the creation of a concordance" [syn: charge]

3 furnish; "a beautifully appointed house"

English

Etymology

Old English appointen, apointen, Old French apointier to prepare, arrange, lean, place, French appointer to give a salary, refer a cause, from LL. appunctare to bring back to the point, restore, to fix the point in a controversy, or the points in an agreement; Latin ad + punctum a point. See Point.

Pronunciation

IPA: WEAE /ʌˈpɔɪnt/

• Rhymes: -ɔɪnt

Verb

1. : To fix with power or firmness; to establish; to mark out.

   When he appointed the foundations of the earth. --Prov. viii. 29.

2. : To fix by a decree, order, command, resolve, decision, or mutual agreement; to constitute; to ordain; to prescribe; to fix the time and place of.

   Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint. --2 Sam. xv. 15.

   He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness. --Acts xvii. 31.

   Say that the emperor request a parley ... and appoint the meeting. --Shak.

3. : To assign, designate, or set apart by authority.

   Aaron and his shall go in, and appoint them every one to his service. --Num. iv. 19.

   These were cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them. --Josh. xx. 9.

4. : To furnish in all points; to provide with everything necessary by way of equipment; to equip; to fit out.

   The English, being well appointed, did so entertain them that their ships departed terribly torn. --Hayward.

5. , (Law): To direct, designate, or limit; to make or direct a new disposition of, by virtue of a power contained in a conveyance;—said of an estate already conveyed. --Burrill. Kent.

Translations

• Japanese: 任命する (ninmei suru)

Appointment may refer to a number of things, including the following:

• An appointment is a time reserved for something such as a doctor visit, much like a reservation.
• An appointment, in government also refers to the assignment of a person by an official to perform a duty, such as a presidential appointment of a judge to a court. This may also happen for an office which is normally elected, but has an unexpected vacancy. A person appointed but not yet in office is a designate.
• The power of appointment, in law, is the ability of a testator to select another person to dispose of the testator's property.
• An appointment of clergy, in Christianity, is made by a bishop to a particular ministry setting, particularly in denominations which practice episcopal forms of church government and polity (such as Anglicanism and United Methodist Church.) Typically, a pastor is appointed to a particular church or parish.
• Appointment is used to describe a system of selecting candidates in which the choice is made by an individual or panel rather than by a poll of the populace in general (election), or through random selection (allotment/sortition) as used to select juries.

accouter, allocate, allot, appropriate to, arm, arrange, assign, assign to, authorize, choose, commission, decorate, decree, delegate, demand, deputize, designate, destinate, destine, detail, determine, devote, dictate, doom, dress, earmark, elect, equip, establish, fate, fit, fit out, fit up, fix, foredoom, furnish, gear, heel, impose, lay down, lot, make assignments, make obligatory, man, mark, mark off, mark out for, munition, name, nominate, ordain, ordinate, outfit, place in office, portion off, prepare, prescribe, require, reserve, restrict, restrict to, rig, rig out, rig up, schedule, select, set, set apart, set aside, set off, settle, staff, tab, tag, turn out, vote in