signature

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a sheet with several pages printed on it

   it folds to page size and is bound with other signatures to form a book

2. 2
   noun

   A person's name, written by that person, used as identification or to signify approval of accompanying material, such as a legal contract.

   Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […] his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there. For his signature, however, that was different.

3. 3
   noun

   An act of signing one's name; an act of producing a signature.

   IN COMMENTS during signature of the bill yesterday during “Agriculture Day” at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Thompson agreed with farmers that land needs to be protected.

4. 4
   noun

   A mark or sign of implication.

   the natural and indelible signature of God, which human souls […] are supposed to be stamped with

5. 5
   noun

   A distinguishing feature or product.

   A great beginning is the goose-liver terrine with truffles, one of the chef's signatures.

6. 6
   noun

   Text (or images, etc.) appended to a user's emails, newsgroup posts, forum posts, etc. as a way of adding a personal touch or including contact details.

   Your signature must not exceed three lines of text, or 600 pixels in height.

7. 7
   adj

   Distinctive, characteristic, indicative of identity.

   Rabbit in mustard sauce is my signature dish.

8. 8
   noun

   a distinguishing style

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French signature, or from Medieval Latin signātūra, future active periphrastic of verb signāre from signum (“sign”), + -tūra, feminine of -tūrus, future active periphrastic suffix. Displaced native Old English handseten (literally “hand setting”).