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Meaning of assent in English:

assent

Pronunciation /əˈsɛnt/

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noun

mass noun

  • 1The expression of approval or agreement.

    ‘a loud murmur of assent’
    • ‘he nodded assent’
    • ‘Both ambassadors nodded assent, as did the Council President as he looked around the room.’
    • ‘Imagine your private thrill when everyone in the congregation nodded assent.’
    • ‘I nodded assent, and promptly closed my eyes and began to daydream.’
    • ‘Everyone nodded and murmured their assent, and then began to shout out suggestions.’
    • ‘The others nodded their assent and went back to their respective homes.’
    • ‘The most honourable manner of signifying their assent, is to express their applause by the sound of their arms.’
    • ‘This doubt spreads to the narrator's reliance on the narratee's assent and approval.’
    • ‘When it is a case of majority assent or approval, issues arise as to the effect on the minority.’
    • ‘For example, the voice actors issue pre-recorded phone calls and their conversations are such that all you can do is nod or assent.’
    • ‘I nodded in assent, and slowly moved forward to embrace my coach, mentor, and friend in a gesture of thanks.’
    • ‘Her eyes held him steady and he breathed deeply before nodding in assent.’
    • ‘He stared at me for a moment, as if searching for the proper response, and then finally nodded in assent.’
    • ‘She is the sort of person who, if you called her an unregenerate hippie, might proudly nod assent.’
    • ‘It is a deviation from the party line, but a murmur of assent goes up.’
    • ‘There were murmurs of assent before the messenger replied.’
    • ‘A few murmurs of assent ran down the table's length at that remark.’
    • ‘Parental consent and child assent was received from all dyads.’
    • ‘These ordinances were read out before the community at a further churchyard meeting in September and received community assent.’
    • ‘They indicate those objects toward which and those areas within which every human being is entitled to act without securing further permission or assent.’
    • ‘The thesis received respectful attention, but it did not win assent or committed followers.’
    approval, acceptance, assent, endorsement, encouragement, recognition, appreciation, support, respect, admiration, commendation, congratulations
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    1. 1.1Official agreement or sanction.
      ‘the act was given the Royal Assent’
      • ‘He has power to veto bills by withholding his assent.’
      • ‘If the president withholds his assent, the bill will be killed.’
      • ‘In such cases, it has the power either to assent or to withhold assent.’
      • ‘Upper houses have only one hold over governments, their ability to withhold assent from government legislation.’
      • ‘They give ample assurance that it would be unreasonable to withhold assent.’
      • ‘Peers had attempted to extend disability rights to sufferers of depression, but backed down from a confrontation and allowed the bill to gain assent.’
      • ‘Allowing time for completion of the negotiations, then assent and ratification, the first accessions are expected around 2004.’
      • ‘But we say the Chief Justice was right to draw distinction between prospective assent and ratification.’
      • ‘‘The present Act never received assent, but this has never been properly challenged,’ she said.’
      • ‘At the moment, the treaty assumes each state will go through with its own ratification procedure either by referendum or by assent through individual parliaments.’
      • ‘Later, there is a formal ceremony in Rome but his authority as Pope is present from the moment of assent.’
      • ‘His professed attitude of withholding assent was adopted to avoid error and rashness of judgement.’
      • ‘Because subjects who give assent have diminished capacity, permission from their proxies also should be obtained.’
      • ‘It now awaits ratification and the assent by the Chancellor, as the move requires a change in the University statute.’
      • ‘Since passage of a bill into law required the assent of all three institutions, compromise was essential.’
      • ‘This provision requires the Council to act unanimously after receiving the opinion of the Commission and the assent of the Parliament.’
      • ‘But they clung to their plan and carried on without constitutional approval and parliamentary assent.’
      agreement, acceptance, approval, approbation, consent, acquiescence, compliance, concurrence
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verb

[no object]often assent to

  • Express approval or agreement.

    ‘the Prime Minister assented to the change’
    • ‘‘Guest house, then,’ Frank assented cheerfully’
    • ‘The others nodded in mute agreement, assenting to the terms set down by the car's owner.’
    • ‘We then asked all children of consenting parents to assent to study participation.’
    • ‘By convention, the monarch will not refuse her assent to a Bill passed by Parliament and she will act on the advice of her ministers.’
    • ‘The Senate, on a voice vote Monday, gave its assent to the legislation three days after the House blessed it by 298-121.’
    • ‘The patient may then readily assent to other requirements we both agree on.’
    • ‘The theological debates of the time come alive through his bourgeois, sporting, nonintellectual hero who nonetheless is dogged in trying to find out what precisely he would be assenting to in becoming an Anglican clergyman.’
    • ‘The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God's remission.’
    • ‘Certainly he appears to be fulfilling all the legal functions of the role adequately, such as assenting to laws and setting session times for Parliament.’
    • ‘The formality of being made to click assent is significant, even if one is assenting to standard form contracts.’
    • ‘I assented to them all: not one of them created the slightest intellectual difficulty, save the major premise of God's existence.’
    • ‘For such an effort to have been mounted so quickly, and for the Russians to have assented to outside help so speedily, speaks volumes for all concerned.’
    • ‘‘They're still our heroes,’ said one, the nods and sound-bites from those around him signalling assent to his view.’
    • ‘They might even assent to the idea that more and more women want marriage and children, not the bogus liberation that the sexual revolution purveyed.’
    • ‘The Executive undertakes to produce a coherent programme of government which the parliament is duty bound to scrutinise, debate and give assent to.’
    • ‘Yet a vague assent to a vague assertion only yields twice as much vagueness.’
    • ‘To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself.’
    • ‘Should Parliament assent to the amendments, this requirement will fall away.’
    • ‘Factual assent to an armed assault is one matter; ideological commitment to it another.’
    • ‘They declared themselves incapable of assenting to any changes touching the Church without the authorization of the Assembly of the Clergy.’
    • ‘His acceptance of them as hypotheses does not require assenting to them.’
    agree to, accept, approve, consent to, acquiesce in, concur in, accede to, give one's blessing to, bless, give one's seal of approval to, give one's stamp of approval to, rubber-stamp, say yes to
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Origin

Middle English from Old French as(s)enter (verb), as(s)ente (noun), based on Latin assentire, from ad- ‘towards’ + sentire ‘feel, think’.