SIGNIFY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Signify

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/sˈɪgnəfˌaɪ/ Listen

verb

Signify v. t. (past & past part. signified; pres. part. signifying)

To show by a sign; to communicate by any conventional token, as words, gestures, signals, or the like; to announce; to make known; to declare; to express; as, a signified his desire to be present. "I 'll to the king; and signify to him That thus I have resign'd my charge to you." "The government should signify to the Protestants of Ireland that want of silver is not to be remedied."

To mean; to import; to denote; to betoken. "He bade her tell him what it signified." "A tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." Note: Signify is often used impersonally; as, it signifies nothing, it does not signify, that is, it is of no importance.

Synonyms: To express; manifest; declare; utter; intimate; betoken; denote; imply; mean.

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Etymology of 'Signify'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Signify" Quotes from Famous Books

... signify the pleasures received by any of the senses, but not those which simply attend perception; four sources of pleasure in vision. I. Novelty or infrequency of visible objects; surprise. II. Repetition; beating of a drum; dancing; architecture; landscapes; picturesque; beautiful; romantic; ...

— The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society - A Poem, with Philosophical Notes • Erasmus Darwin

... There cannot be any poetry whatsoever without a spiritual meaning of some sort: good or bad, moral, immoral, or non-moral, obscure or lucid, noble or ignoble, slight or weighty—such distinctions do not signify. In poetry we are not met by questions whether the poet intended to convey a meaning when he made it. Quite meaningless poetry (as some critics would fain find melody quite meaningless, or a statue meaningless, ...

— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece • John Addington Symonds

... different forms, even the order being interchanged.[142] Nevertheless, as the significance of the name of the unit was given by the order in reading, these variations did not lead to error. Indeed the variation itself may have necessitated the introduction of a word to signify a vacant place or lacking unit, with the ultimate introduction of a zero symbol ...

— The Hindu-Arabic Numerals • David Eugene Smith

... answered: "Let it irk not thee That I not now my name to thee display; Ere longer by a yard the shadows be, This will I signify; a short delay." Wending together, they a river see Whose murmurs woo the traveller from his way, And shepherd-swain, by whiles, to their green brink; There an oblivion ...

— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto

... others mistaking them, thought they were desirous to have some of them to carry away for their own eating. So they beckoned to them, pointing to the setting of the sun, and then to the rising; which was to signify, that the next morning at sun-rising they would bring some for them; and accordingly the next morning they brought down five women and eleven men, and gave them to the Englishmen to carry with them on their voyage, ...

— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe

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