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Reserve vs Assign - What's the difference?

reserve | assign |

As an adjective reserve

is reserved.

As a verb assign is

(lb) to designate or set apart something for some purpose.

As a noun assign is

an assignee.

reserve

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (label) Restriction.
  • # The act of reserving, or keeping back; reservation; exception.
  • .
  • # Restraint of freedom in words or actions; backwardness; caution in personal behavior.
  • That which is reserved, or kept back, as for future use.
  • # A natural resource known to exist but not currently exploited.
  • #*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-04-25, author= Martin Lukacs
  • , volume=190, issue=20, page=13, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Canada becoming launch-pad of a global tar sands and oil shale frenzy , passage=If Alberta’s reserves are a carbon bomb, this global expansion of tar sands and oil shale exploitation amounts to an escalating emissions arms race, the unlocking of a subterranean cache of weapons of mass ecological destruction.}}
  • # A tract of land reserved, or set apart, for a particular purpose; as, the Connecticut Reserve in Ohio, originally set apart for the school fund of Connecticut; the Clergy Reserves in Canada, for the support of the clergy.
  • # (label) A tract of land set apart for the use of an Aboriginal group; Indian reserve (compare US (reservation).)
  • # (label) A body of troops kept in the rear of an army drawn up for battle, reserved to support the other lines as occasion may require; a force or body of troops kept for an exigency.
  • # (label) Funds kept on hand to meet planned or unplanned financial requirements.
  • # Wine held back and aged before being sold.
  • (label) Something initially kept back for later use in a recreation.
  • # (label) A member of a team who does not participate from the start of the game, but can be used to replace tired or injured team-mates.
  • # (label) A group or pile of cards dealt out at the beginning of a patience or solitaire game to be used during play.
  • Synonyms

    * reservation, res * (restraint of freedom in words or actions) self-restraint, reticence, taciturnity * substitute * (tract of land for Aboriginal peoples) rez

    Derived terms

    * Federal Reserve * Federal Reserve System * nature reserve * reserve bank * reserve price * wildlife reserve

    Verb

  • To keep back; to retain.
  • We reserve the right to make modifications.
  • To keep in store for future or special use.
  • This cake is reserved for the guests!
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • Reserve your kind looks and language for private hours.
  • To book in advance; to make a reservation.
  • I reserved a table for us at the best restaurant in town.
  • (obsolete) To make an exception of; to except.
  • Anagrams

    * * * ----

    assign

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To designate or set apart something for some purpose.
  • :
  • (lb) To appoint or select someone for some office.
  • :
  • (lb) To allot or give something as a task.
  • *(Robert Southey) (1774-1843)
  • *:The man who could feel thus was worthy of a better station than that in which his lot had been assigned .
  • * (1796-1859)
  • *:He assigned to his men their several posts.
  • *
  • *:Captain Edward Carlisle; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
  • (lb) To attribute or sort something into categories.
  • To transfer property, a legal right, etc., from one person to another.
  • To give (a value) to a variable.
  • :
  • Derived terms

    * assignment * assignable * assignation

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An assignee.
  • (obsolete) A thing relating or belonging to something else; an appurtenance.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns , as girdles, hangers, and so.
    English transitive verbs