Meaning & use
delegating
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“delegating” is a form of “delegate”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
Giving part of your work or authority to another person so that they carry it out for you.
Grammar: Often takes an object and 'to': delegating the report to an assistant; can be used alone: she is bad at delegating.
Patterns
- delegating something to someone
- delegating authority to someone
- delegating to someone
Delegating routine paperwork gave the manager time to plan.
She is learning that delegating is not the same as avoiding responsibility.
By delegating the cooking to his brother, he could focus on the guests.
verbtransitiveformal
Choosing someone to represent a group or act on its behalf, for example at a meeting.
Grammar: Takes a person as object, often with an infinitive: delegating Maria to attend.
Patterns
- delegating someone to do something
- delegating someone as something
The union is delegating two members to speak at the conference.
They are delegating Tom to represent the class at the school board.
Word forms
| base form | delegate |
|---|---|
| third person singular | delegates |
| past tense | delegated |
| past participle | delegated |
| -ing form | delegating |
Common combinations
- delegating tasks
- Delegating tasks early keeps the project on schedule.
- delegating responsibility
- Delegating responsibility helps junior staff grow.
- delegating authority
- The director is delegating authority to regional managers.
- effective delegating
- Effective delegating depends on clear instructions.
- reluctant about delegating
- He was reluctant about delegating anything important.
Synonyms and how they differ
- assigning
- Means giving someone a task but does not necessarily involve passing on your own authority, which delegating usually does.
- entrusting
- Stresses that you are trusting someone with something valuable, so it sounds more personal than delegating.
- outsourcing
- Means giving work to an outside company, whereas delegating usually keeps the work inside your own team.
- passing on
- More casual and can mean simply handing something over, with no sense of formal authority.
Opposites
Word family
- delegate verb
- to hand work or authority to someone
- delegate noun
- a person chosen to represent others
- delegation noun
- the act of delegating, or a group of delegates
- delegated adjective
- handed to someone else to do
Commonly confused: delegating or relegating?
delegating vs relegating
'Relegating' means moving something to a lower position, as in relegating a team to a lower league; it has nothing to do with sharing work.
Practice
A manager who keeps doing every small task personally instead of ___ work to the team will soon be overloaded.
Choose one answer.
'Delegating work to' means passing it to others. 'Relegating' sounds similar but means demoting, so it does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “delegating”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.