Delegate

A person who is appointed, authorized, delegated, or commissioned to act in the place of another. Transfer of authority from one to another. A person to whom affairs are committed by another.

A person elected or appointed to be a member of a representative assembly. Usually spoken of one sent to a special or occasional assembly or convention. Person selected by a constituency and authorized to act for it at a party or state political convention.

As a verb, it means to transfer authority from one person to another; to empower one to perform a task in behalf of another, e.g., a landlord may delegate an agent to collect rents.

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delegate 1) v. to assign authority to another. 2) n. a person chosen to attend a convention, conference or meeting on behalf of an organization, constituency, interest group or business.

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DELEGATE. A person elected by the people of a territory of the United States, to congress, who has a seat in congress, and a right of debating, but not of voting. Ordinance of July, 13, 1787, 3 Story's L. U. S. 2076.
     2. The delegates from the territories of the United States are entitled to send and receive letters, free of postage, on the same terms and conditions as members of the senate and house of representatives of the United States; and also to the same compensation as is allowed to members of the senate and house of representatives. Act of February 18, 1802, 2 Story, L. U. S. 828.
     3. A delegate is also a person elected to some deliberative assembly, usually one for the nomination of officers.
     4. In contracts, a delegate is one who is authorized by another in the name of the latter; an attorney.