appoint

English

Etymology

From Middle English apointen, borrowed from Old French apointier (“to prepare, arrange, lean, place”) (French appointer (“to give a salary, refer a cause”)), from Late Latin appunctare (“to bring back to the point, restore, to fix the point in a controversy, or the points in an agreement”); Latin ad + punctum (“a point”). See point.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /əˈpɔɪnt/
  • Rhymes: -ɔɪnt
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Hyphenation: ap‧point

Verb

appoint (third-person singular simple present appoints, present participle appointing, simple past and past participle appointed)

  1. (transitive) To set, fix or determine (a time or place for something such as a meeting, or the meeting itself) by authority or agreement.
    • 1820, The Edinburgh Annual Register:
      His Royal Highness called to pay his respects to her Majesty; but, from the unexpected nature of his visit, her Majesty was not in a state then to receive him; but soon after sent a letter to Prince Leopold, to appoint one o'clock this day for an interview.
    • 2014 November 8, Ivan Hewett, “Art on demand makes emperors of us all”, in The Telegraph:
      We have to wait until they're ready to receive us, and make sure we turn up at the appointed time.
  2. (transitive) To name (someone to a post or role).
  3. (transitive) To furnish or equip (a place) completely; to provide with all the equipment or furnishings necessary; to fit out.
    • 2009, Donald Olson, Germany for Dummies:
      The hotel is beautifully designed and beautifully appointed in a classic, modern style that manages to be both serene and luxurious at the same time.
  4. (transitive) To equip (someone) with (something); to assign (someone) authoritatively (some equipment).
    • 1747, William Stith, The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia, page 15:
      after mature Deliberation, he appointed them a Ship of seventy Tons,
  5. (transitive, law) To fix the disposition of (property) by designating someone to take use of (it).
    • 1828–29 (case decided), published in 1843, in the Reports of Cases Decided in the High Court of Chancery:
      If the donee of a power appoint the fund to one of the objects of the power, under an understanding that the latter is to lend the fund to tho former, although on good security, the appointment is bad.
  6. (obsolete, transitive) To fix with power or firmness by decree or command; to ordain or establish.
  7. (obsolete, intransitive) To resolve; to determine; to ordain.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 17:14:
      For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel.
    • 1823 December 13, a record quoted in The Christian Library: A Reprint of Popular Religious Works (Richard Watson, Thomas Taylor, Thomas Raffles, etc; 1836):
      The day being very stormy, we were obliged to keep at home; which I much regretted, as it abridged my opportunity of seeing the Jewish synagogues, as we had appointed to do to-day.
    • 1833, The Miscellaneous Works of the Rev. Matthew Henry:
      He had preached twice on the Lord's day, he preached also on Monday, and had appointed to do the same on Tuesday, but died that morning.
    • 1848, Anthony Trollope, The Kellys and the O'Kellys, →ISBN, page 251:
      On the following morning Lord Ballindine[,] as he had appointed to do, drove over to Dunmore, to settle with Martin about the money, and, if necessary, to go with him to the attorney's office in Tuam.

Derived terms

Translations
to name to a post
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Further reading

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Deverbal of appointer. from Old French apoint (“favorable occasion; resolution, agreement”), from Old French apointier (“to work out, solve”), from Late Latin appunctare (“to bring back to the point, restore, to fix the point in a controversy, or the points in an agreement”); Latin ad + punctum (“a point”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /a.pwɛ̃/
  • Audio(file)

Noun

appoint m (plural appoints)

  1. an amount of small change
    Pour faire mille douze francs, il faut un billet de mille francs et un appoint de douze francs.
    to make one-thousand twelve francs, you need a thousand franc note and twelve francs in change.
  2. money which completes a payment, balances an account
  3. (figurative) complementary support
    Votre concours sera un fort appoint à notre entreprise.
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Derived terms
  • faire l’appoint
  • câbles d’appoint
  • carburant d’appoint
  • lit d’appoint
  • propulseur d’appoint
  • pièce d’appoint

Further reading
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