1. Approve and express assent, responsibility, or obligation
   "Have you signed your contract yet?";
   - ratify
    
2. Mark with one's signature; write one's name (on)
   "She signed the letter and sent it off"; "Please sign here";
   - subscribe [formal]
    
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"; "The hikers signd their location to the rescue helicopter";
   - signal, signalize, signalise [Brit]
    
6. Communicate in sign language
   "I don't know how to sign, so I could not communicate with my deaf cousin"
    
7. Place signs, as along a road
   "sign an intersection"; "This road has been signed"
    
8. Make the sign of the cross over someone in order to call on God for protection; consecrate
   "The priest signed the infant's forehead";
   - bless

1. A public display of a message
   "he posted signs in all the shop windows"
    
2. 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
    
3. Any nonverbal action or gesture that encodes a message
   "He gave a sign of approval by nodding his head";
   - signal, signaling [N. Amer], signalling [Brit, Cdn]
    
4. A gesture that is part of a sign language
   "She used the sign for 'thank you' in American Sign Language"
    
5. Structure displaying a board on which advertisements can be posted
   "the highway was lined with signs";
   - signboard
    
6. (medicine) any objective evidence of the presence of a disorder or disease
   "there were no signs of asphyxiation"
    
7. An event that is experienced as indicating important things to come
   "it was a sign from God";
   - augury, foretoken [literary]
    
8. (linguistics) a fundamental linguistic unit linking a signifier to that which is signified
   "In semiotics, the word 'tree' is a sign that represents the concept of a tree"
    
9. A character indicating a relation between quantities
   "don't forget the minus sign"
    
10. (astrology) one of 12 equal areas into which the zodiac is divided
    "She always checks her star sign in the daily horoscope";
    - sign of the zodiac, star sign, mansion, house, planetary house
     
11. Having an indicated pole (as the distinction between positive and negative electric charges)
    "charges of opposite sign";
    - polarity

1. Used of the language of the deaf
   "The sign-language interpreter conveyed the speech to the audience";
   - gestural, signed, sign-language

Sounds like: sighted, cited, sign, sin

Derived forms: signs, signing, signed

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

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, take on, undertake, validate, write

Part of: disease, sign language, signing, zodiac

Encyclopedia: Sign, The