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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Signify \Sig"ni*fy\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Signified}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Signifying}.] [F. signifier, L. significare; signum a sign + -ficare (in comp.) to make. See {Sign}, noun, and {-fy}.]
1. To show by a sign; to communicate by any conventional token, as words, gestures, signals, or the like; to announce; to make known; to declare; to express; as, a signified his desire to be present.
I 'll to the king; and signify to him That thus I have resign'd my charge to you. --Shak.
The government should signify to the Protestants of Ireland that want of silver is not to be remedied. --Swift.
2. To mean; to import; to denote; to betoken.
He bade her tell him what it signified. --Chaucer.
A tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. --Shak.
Note: Signify is often used impersonally; as, it signifies nothing, it does not signify, that is, it is of no importance.
Syn: To express; manifest; declare; utter; intimate; betoken; denote; imply; mean.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
signify
verb
1: denote or connote; "'maison' means 'house' in French"; "An example sentence would show what this word means" [syn: {mean}, {intend}, {stand for}]
2: convey or express a meaning; "These words mean nothing to me!"; "What does his strange behavior signify?"
3: make known with a word or signal; "He signified his wish to pay the bill for our meal" [also: {signified}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
115 Moby Thesaurus words for "signify": add up to, amount to something, announce, approve, argue, assign, attest, augur, be construed as, be featured, be indicative of, be prominent, be significant of, be somebody, be something, be symptomatic of, bear, bespeak, betoken, breathe, carry, carry weight, characterize, communicate, connote, convey, count, cut ice, cut some ice, declare, demonstrate, denominate, denote, designate, determine, differentiate, disclose, display, divine, entail, evidence, evince, exhibit, express, fix, foretoken, furnish evidence, get top billing, give evidence, give indication of, give token, go to show, highlight, hint, identify, illustrate, impart, imply, import, impress, indicate, intend, intimate, involve, make known, manifest, mark, matter, mean, mention, name, note, pick out, pin down, point out, point to, prefigure, preindicate, presign, presignal, presignify, pretypify, purport, refer to, represent, reveal, say, select, set, set forth, show, show signs of, sign, signal, signalize, speak for itself, speak volumes, specialize, specify, spell, stand for, stand out, star, state, stipulate, suggest, symbolize, symptomatize, symptomize, tell, tend to show, testify, token, typify, weigh
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