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Verb: sign  sIn
  1. Mark with one's signature; write one's name (on)
    "She signed the letter and sent it off"; "Please sign here";
    - subscribe
     
  2. Approve and express assent, responsibility, or obligation
    "Have you signed your contract yet?";
    - ratify
     
  3. Be engaged by a written agreement
    "He signed to play the casino on Dec. 18"; "The soprano signed to sing the new opera"
     
  4. Engage by written agreement
    "They signed two new pitchers for the next season";
    - contract, sign on, sign up
     
  5. Communicate silently and non-verbally by signals or signs
    "He signed his disapproval with a dismissive hand gesture";
    - signal, signalize, signalise [Brit]
     
  6. Place signs, as along a road
    "sign an intersection"; "This road has been signed"
     
  7. Communicate in sign language
    "I don't know how to sign, so I could not communicate with my deaf cousin"
     
  8. Make the sign of the cross over someone in order to call on God for protection; consecrate
    - bless
Noun: sign  sIn
  1. A perceptible indication of something not immediately apparent (as a visible clue that something has happened)
    "they welcomed the signs of spring"; "he showed signs of strain";
    - mark
     
  2. A public display of a message
    "he posted signs in all the shop windows"
     
  3. Any nonverbal action or gesture that encodes a message
    - signal, signaling [N. Amer], signalling [Brit, Cdn]
     
  4. Structure displaying a board on which advertisements can be posted
    "the highway was lined with signs";
    - signboard
     
  5. (astrology) one of 12 equal areas into which the zodiac is divided
    - sign of the zodiac, star sign, mansion, house, planetary house
     
  6. (medicine) any objective evidence of the presence of a disorder or disease
    "there were no signs of asphyxiation"
     
  7. Having an indicated pole (as the distinction between positive and negative electric charges)
    "charges of opposite sign";
    - polarity
     
  8. An event that is experienced as indicating important things to come
    "it was a sign from God";
    - augury, foretoken [literary]
     
  9. A gesture that is part of a sign language
     
  10. (linguistics) a fundamental linguistic unit linking a signifier to that which is signified
     
  11. A character indicating a relation between quantities
    "don't forget the minus sign"
Adjective: sign  sIn
  1. Used of the language of the deaf
    - gestural, signed, sign-language

Sounds like: sighted, cited, sign, sin

Derived forms: signed, signing, signs

See also: communicative, communicatory, sign in, sign over

Type of: clew [archaic], clue, communicate, communication, construction, contract, employ, engage, evidence, experience, formalise [Brit], formalize, gesticulate, gesture, grounds, hire, intercommunicate, language unit, lay, linguistic unit, mathematical notation, motion, oppositeness, opposition, part, place, pose, position, put, region, set, structure, undertake, validate, write

Part of: disease, sign language, signing, zodiac

Encyclopedia: Sign