I.v. a., to send, assign, dispatch, delegate a person to any place, person or business; to assign, confide, commit, intrust any thing to a person (for attention, care, protection, etc.); to charge a person with a business; to lay or impose upon a person any charge, order, business, command, etc., esp. of that which one prefers not to attend to in person (good prose; not in Caes.; perh. not in Cic.; v. the doubtful passage Cic. Fam. 7, 5, 2, and Orell. ad loc.).
I. In gen.
A. With personal objects: “si cui fautores delegatos viderint, etc.,” Plaut. Am. prol. 67 and 83: “aliquem in Tullianum,” Liv. 29, 22 fin.: “infantem ancillis ac nutricibus,” Tac. G. 20; cf. id. Or. 29: “Cassium Longinum occidendum delegaverat,” Suet. Calig. 57: “studiosos Catonis ad illud volumen delegamus,” refer to, Nep. Cato 3 fin.: “ad senatum,” Liv. 5, 20 fin.—
B. With a thing as object: hunc laborem alteri delegavi, Cael. ap. Cic. Fam. 8, 1; so, “curam nepotum alicui,” Quint. 4 prooem. § 4: “officium alicui,” id. 6 prooem. § 1: “ ministerium triumviris,” Tac. Agr. 2; cf.: “jurisdictionem magistratibus,” Suet. Claud. 23: “ordinandas bibliothecas alicui,” id. Caes. 56; cf. id. Gramm. 21: “obsidione delegata in curam collegae,” Liv. 9, 13: “delegato sibi officio functi sunt,” Lact. 1, 4, 6. —
II. In partic., t. t. in the lang. of business, to assign, transfer, make over, either one who is to pay a debt or the debt itself: delegare est vice sua alium reum dare creditori, vel cui jusserit, Dig. 46, 2, 11: “debitorem,” ib. 12: “debitores nobis deos,” Sen. Ben. 4, 11; cf.: “delegabo te ad Epicurum, ab illo fiet numeratio,” id. Ep. 18, 14: “nomen paterni debitoris,” Dig. 37, 6, 1.— Absol.: “Quinto delegabo, si quid aeri meo alieno superabit,” Cic. Att. 13, 46, 3: “Balbi regia condicio est delegandi,” id. ib. 12, 12: “terram,” to assign, Vulg. 3 Reg. 11, 18.—
B. Trop., to attribute, impute, ascribe to: “si hoc crimen optimis nominibus delegare possumus,” Cic. Font. 4, 8; so, “causam peccati mortuis,” Hirt. B. G. 8, 22, 2: “scelera ipsa aliis,” Tac. A. 13, 43: “omne rei bene aut secus gestae in Etruria decus dedecusque ad Volumnium,” Liv. 10, 19; cf.: “servati consulis decus ad servum,” id. 21, 46 fin.
