Resign vs re-sign

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Grammarist

Resign, used as a transitive verb, means to give up or relinquish something. Resign, used as an intransitive verb means to leave a position or job. In chess, when one resigns, one ends the game by conceding defeat. To be resigned means to accept the inevitable. Related words are resigns, resigned, resigning, resigner and resignation. Resign appears in the English language in the late fourteenth century with the meaning give up, surrender, abandon, submit, relinquish, coming from the Latin resignare, which means to check off, annul, cancel, give back, give up.

Re-sign is transitive verb which means to sign again. Re-sign may mean the physical signing of a document or the re-engagement of someone under contract with the expectation that another contract will be physically signed. Re-sign first appears in 1805.

Examples

Stanford Business School Dean to Resign Over a Lawsuit (The New York Times)

Iain Duncan Smith should resign after the release of statistics showing thousands of people died soon after being found fit to work in disability benefit tests, the frontrunner for the Labour leadership has said. (The Independent)

Maria thinks his transfer could be a political move, ‘planning to resign’ (The Times of India)

Diversion Authority Chairman Darrell Vanyo sees the release of the draft report as “positive for us” and is resigned to several months of waiting for the final decision. (The Star Tribune)

Saints re-sign Hightower, McGlynn (The Washington Times)

Louis van Gaal warned he’ll fail to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo at Man Utd this summer (The Daily Express)

Today, Livingston FC announced that they have decided to re-sign Gallagher until his appeal is concluded and appeared to give their backing to the player, saying his was involved in a bid to “clear his name.” (The Mirror)

Birkirkara have reached an agreement to re-sign Frank Temile, the Premier League club said on their website. (The Times of Malta)