▪ I. † ˈrelegate, n. Obs. rare—1.
[ad. L. relēgāt-us: see next.]
A banished person; an exile.
| c 1540 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden) I. 186 He banished this springehole [sic] as relagate in Fraunce. |
▪ II. relegate, v.
(ˈrɛlɪgeɪt)
Also 7 relig-.
[f. ppl. stem of L. relēgāre, f. re- re- + lēgāre to send.]
1. trans. To send (a person) into exile; to banish to a particular place. (Cf. relegation 1.) † Also refl., to remove (oneself) to a distance from something.
| 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe 8 The sands..would no more liue vnder the yoke of the Sea,..but clearely quitted, disterminated and relegated themselues from his inflated Capriciousnesse. 1611 Cotgr., Releguer, to relegate, banish, exile. 1628 tr. Mathieu's Powerfull Favorite 84 That was too gentle to satisfie the cruelty of Tiberius,..onely relegating the culpable out of Rome. 1774 Kames Sketches ii. iii. (1807) II. 83 To be relegated to his country-seat, is, to a gentleman of rank, more terrible than a capital punishment. 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. lxii. (1865) VII. 407 Nor is it clear that Dion Chrysostomus was actually relegated to the Ister. 1873 Tristram Moab xiv. 264 The fortress to which Herod relegated his wife. |
2. a. To banish to some unimportant or obscure place; to consign to a place or position, esp. one of inferiority.
| 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. (ed. 2) 153 We have not relegated religion (like something we were ashamed to shew) to obscure municipalities or rustick villages. 1865 Daily Tel. 16 Nov. 7/7 The various ‘bills’ that have..been relegated to the dust of official pigeon-holes. 1877 Black Green Past. xviii. (1878) 147 She would do her best in the sphere to which she had been relegated. |
b. To consign (a subject) to some province, sphere, domain, etc.
| 1866 R. W. Dale Disc. Spec. Occ. viii. 275 To relegate the intellect to inferior provinces of thought. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 406 If occasionally we come across difficulties..we relegate some of them to the sphere of mystery. 1878 Maclear Celts iv. 47 To the domain of legend..we must also relegate the tradition. |
c. To assign or refer (a thing) to a class or kind.
| 1870 tr. Pouchet's Universe 57 Men have never known to what kingdom the sponges should be relegated. 1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. v. 206 The comparative study of the Basque numerals has relegated them to the Finnic family. |
d. Sport. To reallocate (a team) to a lower division of a league. Cf. relegation 1 c.
| 1913 Times 28 Apr. 12/5 Norwich County..will..be relegated to the Second Division next season. 1934 Times 7 May 4/5 Everton, when they were relegated for the first time in their history, climbed back immediately. 1981 Times 6 May 10/3 After a trying beginning, that saw the club relegated to the second division. |
3. a. To refer (a matter) to some authority for decision.
| 1846 H. Rogers Ess. (1860) I. 180 Affirming that that faith to which the appeal is sure to be ultimately relegated is a faith entirely without reason. 1884 Law Rep. 25 Chanc. Div. 282 Where there is an agreement, the whole matter ought to be at once relegated to the Taxing Master. |
b. To commit, hand over (a thing), to another to carry out or deal with.
| 1864 Bowen Logic ii. 35 The discussion of it is, therefore, relegated to treatises on that science of which it forms a part. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. iv. II. 43 The later inquisitors, who relegated the execution of the sentence to the civil power. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 427 Men, seeking to escape the drudgery of manual labour, have relegated toil to the captive and the slave. |
c. To turn over or refer (a person) for something to some person or thing.
| 1870 Disraeli Lothair xli, She would..have been relegated for amusement, during her visit, to the attentions of the dark sex. 1883 Contemp. Rev. XLIII. 274 Failing such means of knowledge, we are relegated for information..to incidental statements..of the historians. |
Hence ˈrelegated, ˈrelegating ppl. adjs.
| 1611 Cotgr., Relegué, relegated, banished, exiled. 1692 Wood Life 19 May (O.H.S.) III. 390 Dr. Byrom Eaton resign'd his principality of Gloc. Hall, after it had laid in a religated condition several yeares. 1727–38 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Relegation, In Rome, relegation was a less severe punishment than deportation, in that the relegated person did not thereby lose the rights of a Roman citizen. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. vi. 2076, I am, on earth, as good as out of it, A relegated priest. 1887 H. James Partial Portraits (1888) 31 Such a revision of Emerson has no relegating consequences. |