signify

Verb

signify (third-person singular simple present signifies, present participle signifying, simple past and past participle signified)

1. To create a sign out of something.
2. To give (something) a meaning or an importance.
3. To show one’s intentions with a sign etc.; to indicate, announce, or portend.
   • I’ll to the king; and signify to him / That thus I have resign’d my charge to you.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
   • For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 25:27
4. To mean; to betoken.
   • Life’s […] a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
   • Mrs Varden was a lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper—a phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper tolerably certain to make everybody more or less uncomfortable.1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 7.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC
5. To make a difference; to matter (in negative or interrogative expressions).
   • To be but in the company of those we love, satisfies us: it does not signify whether we speak to ’em or not, whether we think on them or on indifferent things. To be near ’em is all.1699, uncredited translator, “Of the Heart”, in The Characters, or, The Manners of the Age, London: John Bullord, translation of original by Jean de La Bruyère, page 84
   • VVell ſays I, and are you thus eaſy? ay, ſays ſhe, I can’t help myſelf, vvhat ſignifyes being ſad? If I am hang’d there’s an End of me, ſays ſhe, and avvay ſhe turns Dancing, and Sings as ſhe goes, […]1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC...