Resign

//ɹiːˈsaɪn// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To give up; to relinquish ownership of. transitive

    "And if the perfection of well-speaking might bring any glorie sutable unto a great personage, Scipio and Lelius would never have resigned the honour of their Comedies[…]unto an Affrican servant[…]."

  2. 2
    Alternative spelling of re-sign. alt-of, alternative, proscribed

    "Lastly, a note that I have resigned my GPG key to extend the expiration date."

  3. 3
    accept as inevitable wordnet
  4. 4
    To hand over (something to someone), place into the care or control of another. transitive
  5. 5
    part with a possession or right wordnet
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    To voluntarily leave (a job or position), in particular a hard-fought position of high status. intransitive, transitive

    "I am resigning in protest of the unfair treatment of our employees."

  2. 7
    leave (a job, post, or position) voluntarily wordnet
  3. 8
    To submit passively; to give up as hopeless or inevitable. transitive

    "He had no choice but to resign the game and let his opponent become the champion."

  4. 9
    give up or retire from a position wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abdicateleavequitquitreleaserenounce

Example

More examples

"You should do the honorable thing and resign."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Anglo-Norman resigner, Middle French resigner, and its source, Latin resignāre (“to unseal, annul, assign, resign”), from re- + signāre (“to seal, stamp”). Piecewise doublet of re-sign.

Etymology 2

From re- + sign.

Related phrases

resign oneselfgive uphand over

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.