sign

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Something that suggests the presence or existence of a fact, condition, or quality.
2. n. An act or gesture used to convey an idea, a desire, information, or a command: gave the go-ahead sign.
3. n. Sign language.
4. n. A displayed structure bearing lettering or symbols, used to identify or advertise a place of business: a motel with a flashing neon sign outside.
5. n. A posted notice bearing a designation, direction, or command: an EXIT sign above a door; a traffic sign.
6. n. A conventional figure or device that stands for a word, phrase, or operation; a symbol, as in mathematics or in musical notation.
7. n. An indicator, such as a dropping or footprint, of the trail of an animal: looking for deer sign.
8. n. A trace or vestige: no sign of life.
9. n. A portentous incident or event; a presage: took the eclipse as a sign from God.
10. n. A body manifestation that serves to indicate the presence of malfunction or disease.
11. n. One of the 12 divisions of the zodiac, each named for a constellation and represented by a symbol.
12. v. To affix one's signature to.
13. v. To write (one's signature).
14. v. To approve or ratify (a document) by affixing a signature, seal, or other mark: sign a bill into law.
15. v. To hire or engage by obtaining a signature on a contract: signed a rookie pitcher for next season; sign up actors for a tour.
16. v. To relinquish or transfer title to by signature: signed away all her claims to the estate.
17. v. To provide with a sign or signs: sign a new highway.
18. v. To communicate with a sign or signs: signed his approval with a nod.
19. v. To express (a word or thought, for example) by sign language: signed her reply to the question.
20. v. To consecrate with the sign of the cross.
21. v. To make a sign or signs; signal.
22. v. To use sign language.
23. v. To write one's signature.
24. sign in To record the arrival of another or oneself by signing a register.
25. sign off To announce the end of a communication; conclude.
26. sign off To stop transmission after identifying the broadcasting station.
27. sign off Informal To express approval formally or conclusively: got the Congress to sign off on the tax proposal.
28. sign on Informal To enlist oneself, especially as an employee: "Retired politicians often sign on with top-dollar law firms” ( New York Times).
29. sign on To start transmission with an identification of the broadcasting station.
30. sign out To record the departure of another or oneself by signing a register.
31. sign up To agree to be a participant or recipient by signing one's name; enlist: signed up for military service; signing up for a pottery course.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Avisible mark or impress, whether natural or artificial, accidental or purposed, serving to convey information, suggest an idea, or assist inference; a distinctive guiding indication to the eye.
2. n. An arbitrary or conventional mark used as an abbreviation for a known meaning; a figure written technically instead of the word or words which it represents, according to prescription or usage: as, mathematical, astronomical, medical, botanical, or musical signs; occult signs; an artist's sign. The most common mathematical signs are those indicating tile relations of quantities in arithmetical and algebraic processes. (See notation, 2.) The principal astronomical signs are those representing the names of the twelve divisions or constellations of the zodiac. (See def. 11.) Others symbolize the sun, the earth, and the other planets, the moon and its different phases, and the first twenty or more of the asteroids or planetoids. (See symbol.) All these, as well as the zodiacal signs, are in form significant of the names or the bodies for which they stand. The eight aspects have also signs, as follows: conjunction, opposition, △ trine, quadratnre, * sextile, and three others very rarely used. In zoology two astronomical signs, and of Mars and Venus, are constantly used to denote male and female respectively; to which is sometimes added a plain circle, O, meaning a young animal of undetermined sex. These signs for sex are in a good many of the cuts of insects figured in this volume (see, for example, silk-spider). In botany indicates a monocarpic plant; , an annual; , a biennial; , a perennial; , a shrub; , a tree; , a male plant or flower; , a female plant or flower; , a hermaphrodite plant or flower; ∞, indefinitely numerous; O =, cotyledons accumbent; O ||, cotyledons incumbent, etc. The following signs are in common use in medicine and pharmacy: , recipe; , ounce: , fluidounce; 3, dram; f3, fluidrachm; , scruple; , minim.
3. n. Something displayed to announce the presence of any one; a cognizance; a standard; a banner.
4. n. An inscribed board, plate, or space, or a symbolical representation or figure, serving for guidance or information, as on or before a place of business or of public resort, or along a road: as, a merchant's or shopman's sign; a tavern -sign; a swinging sign; a tin sign; a sign-board. Places of business, and especially taverns, were formerly often known by the names of the figures or representations used by them for signs, as the Cock and Bull for a tavern, the Bible and Keys for a bookstore, etc.
5. n. A symbolical representation; a symbol; hence, in absolute use, symbolical significance; allusive representation: with in.
6. n. A representative or indicative thing; a tangible, audible, or historical token, symbol, or memento; an exponent or indicator: as, words are the signs of thought; the ruin is a sign of past grandeur.
7. n. In general, anything which serves to manifest, stand for, or call up the idea of another thing to the mind of the person perceiving it; evidence of something past, present, or future; a symptom: as, to show signs of life; a sign of foul or fair weather; signs of war; signs of a contagious disease.
8. n. In Biblical use:
9. n. That by which a person or thing is known, especially as divinely distinguished (Luke ii. 12; Rom. iv. 11; 2 Cor. xii. 12).
10. n. Especially, an appearance or occurrence indicative of the divine presence or power, and authenticating a message or messenger (Acts ii. 22, vii. 36; 1 Cor. i. 22): a miraculous manifestation or warning; a portent; an omen.
11. n. A motion or gesture intended to express thought or convey an idea; a movement of the hand or some other part of the body having a natural or conventional significance: as, the instinctive, artificial, or alphabetical signs of the deaf and dumb; pantomimic signs; to manifest assent by a sign.
12. n. A spoken symbol; a signal-cry; a watchword: a use still seen in countersign.
13. n. One of the twelve divisions of the zodiac, each comprising 30 degrees of the ecliptic, and marked as to position by a constellation or group of stars, the name of which is represented by a symbolical figure or sign of ancient origin. The zodiacal signs are Aries, the Ram; Taurus, the Bull; II Gemini, the Twins; ♋ Cancer, the Crab; Leo. the Lion; Virgo, the Maid; Libra, the Balance; Scorpio, the Scorpion; Sagittarius, the Archer; Capricornus, the Goat; Aquarius, the Water-bearer; Pisces, the Fishes. Owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the signs have now moved quite away from the constellations from which they take their names. See zodiac.
14. n. Figuratively, an individual stamp or quality distinguishing anything done or produced by a person. [Often hyphened.]
15. n. See equality.
16. n. See sign of the cross, under cross.
17. n. Synonyms Note, index, symbol, type, manifestation, signal.
18. n. 7 and Prognostic, Presage, etc. See omen.
19. To mark with a sign, either fixed or (as by a significant motion) passing; place a sign or distinguishing mark upon; mark; specifically, to sign with the cross. Compare sain.
20. To affix a signature to, as a writing of any kind, a design or painting, or the like, for verification, attestation, or assent; write one's name upon, or something intended to represent one's name, or (as by authorization or assumption) that of another person: as, to sign bills or receipts with the employer's name and the writer's initials; the plans were signed with a monogram. A legal or other paper, a picture, etc., is said to be signed if the person has written his own name or initials at any requisite point in its course, or in the margin it is said to be subscribed only if he has written this at the end.
21. To write as a signature: as, to sign one's own or another's name to a letter.
22. To affect by a binding signature; dispose of by written assignment or release: with away or off: as, to sign away one's rights; to sign off one's interest in a contract.
23. To procure the signature of, as to an agreement; engage by the signing of a contract; put under written obligation.
24. To communicate by a sign; make known by a significant motion; signal, as with the hand.
25. To give or show signs of; display in appearance or manner; betoken or distinguish by any indication.
26. To assign, as to a place or duty; direct; appoint; settle; fix.
27. To write one's signature; bind one's self by a signature; make a signed agreement or statement: with an adverbial adjunct: as, to sign off from drinking (that is, to sign the temperance pledge). [According to Bartlett, to sign off formerly meant in Connecticut to free one's self from a parish tax by a written declaration of membership of a church other than that supported by the commonwealth.]
28. To serve as a sign; have significance; augur.
29. To mate a sign or signs; gesture or point significantly.
30. n. In geometry, the symbol .

Wiktionary

1. n. A visible indication.
2. n. A clearly visible object, generally flat, bearing a short message in words or pictures.
3. n. A traffic sign.
4. n. A meaningful gesture.
5. n. Any of several specialized non-alphabetic symbols.
6. n. astrology An astrological sign.
7. n. mathematics Positive or negative polarity.
8. n. A specific gesture or motion used to communicate by those with speaking or hearing difficulties; now specifically, a linguistic unit in sign language equivalent to word in spoken languages.
9. n. uncountable sign language in general
10. n. An omen.
11. n. medicine A property of the body that indicates a disease and, unlike a symptom, is unlikely to be noticed by the patient.
12. v. transitive To write one's signature on (a document), thus showing authorship.
13. v. transitive To give legal consent by writing one's signature.
14. v. transitive To persuade to sign a contract.
15. v. intransitive To write one's signature.
16. v. intransitive (colloquial) To give autographs.
17. v. intransitive To communicate using sign language.
18. v. transitive To communicate using (sign langauge).
19. v. obsolete To be a sign or omen.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A remarkable event, considered by the ancients as indicating the will of some deity; a prodigy; an omen.
2. n. An event considered by the Jews as indicating the divine will, or as manifesting an interposition of the divine power for some special end; a miracle; a wonder.
3. n. Something serving to indicate the existence, or preserve the memory, of a thing; a token; a memorial; a monument.
4. n. Any symbol or emblem which prefigures, typifles, or represents, an idea; a type; hence, sometimes, a picture.
5. n. A word or a character regarded as the outward manifestation of thought; as, words are the sign of ideas.
6. n. A motion, an action, or a gesture by which a thought is expressed, or a command or a wish made known.
7. n. Hence, one of the gestures of pantomime, or of a language of a signs such as those used by the North American Indians, or those used by the deaf and dumb.
8. n. A military emblem carried on a banner or a standard.
9. n. A lettered board, or other conspicuous notice, placed upon or before a building, room, shop, or office to advertise the business there transacted, or the name of the person or firm carrying it on; a publicly displayed token or notice.
10. n. (Astron.) The twelfth part of the ecliptic or zodiac.
11. n. (Alg.) A character indicating the relation of quantities, or an operation performed upon them.
12. n. (Med.) An objective evidence of disease; that is, one appreciable by some one other than the patient.
13. n. (Mus.) Any character, as a flat, sharp, dot, etc.
14. n. (Theol.) That which, being external, stands for, or signifies, something internal or spiritual; -- a term used in the Church of England in speaking of an ordinance considered with reference to that which it represents.
15. v. To represent by a sign; to make known in a typical or emblematic manner, in distinction from speech; to signify.
16. v. To make a sign upon; to mark with a sign.
17. v. To affix a signature to; to ratify by hand or seal; to subscribe in one's own handwriting.
18. v. To assign or convey formally; -- used with away.
19. v. To mark; to make distinguishable.
20. v. obsolete To be a sign or omen.
21. v. To make a sign or signal; to communicate directions or intelligence by signs.
22. v. To write one's name, esp. as a token of assent, responsibility, or obligation.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. be engaged by a written agreement
2. adj. used of the language of the deaf
3. n. an event that is experienced as indicating important things to come
4. n. (medicine) any objective evidence of the presence of a disorder or disease
5. n. (astrology) one of 12 equal areas into which the zodiac is divided
6. v. make the sign of the cross over someone in order to call on God for protection; consecrate.
7. v. communicate in sign language
8. n. structure displaying a board on which advertisements can be posted
9. n. having an indicated pole (as the distinction between positive and negative electric charges)
10. n. a public display of a message
11. n. a gesture that is part of a sign language
12. n. a fundamental linguistic unit linking a signifier to that which is signified
13. v. place signs, as along a road
14. v. communicate silently and non-verbally by signals or signs
15. v. approve and express assent, responsibility, or obligation
16. n. any nonverbal action or gesture that encodes a message
17. v. engage by written agreement
18. v. mark with one's signature; write one's name (on)
19. n. a perceptible indication of something not immediately apparent (as a visible clue that something has happened)
20. n. a character indicating a relation between quantities