consignment

consign +‎ -ment

• IPA^(key): /kənˈsaɪnmənt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪnmənt

consignment (countable and uncountable, plural consignments)

1. A collection of goods to be sent, in transit or having been sent.
   • c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act 1:

     To E. M. McVicker and Co., Southampton, England. "We undertake no guarantee for goods damaged in transit. As soon as the consignment was taken on board we drew your captain's attention to the fact that the vessel was unsuitable for the transport of Robots, and we are therefore not responsible for spoiled freight. We beg to remain for Rossum's Universal Robots. Yours truly."

   • 1962 December, “Dr. Beeching previews the plan for British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 377:

     In order to provide for a large measure of rail participation in countrywide collection and delivery of small consignments—a task they were never particularly well suited to do, and which they did only because the horse and cart were worse—the railways sacrificed their main advantages.

2. The act of consigning.
3. The sale of one's own goods (clothing, furniture, etc.) through a third-party vendor, in exchange for a portion of the sale price, and with the consigner retaining ownership of the goods until they are sold or abandoned.

• consignment note
• consignment shop

• consignee
• consignor