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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

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"

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