Other forms: resigned, resigning, resigns
To resign is to give up a job or a position on purpose, before anybody makes you. You write a letter, work your notice, and go. A minister resigns after a scandal; a chess player resigns when the game is lost.
It takes FROM for the job and AS for the title: resign from the board, resign as captain. The reflexive is a different idea entirely, because 'resign yourself to something' means accept an unpleasant thing you cannot change — and the noun resignation carries both meanings, the letter and the mood. 'She handed in her resignation' and 'he said it with a sigh of resignation' use one word for two very different Mondays. In chess, resigning is the polite ending: tipping over your king saves everyone the last ten moves. Watch the hyphen as well, because re-sign means to sign again and is said 'ree-sign', so a footballer who re-signs is staying and one who resigns is leaving.
1verbresignTo give up a job or position formally.
“He resigned two weeks after the audit.”
2verbacceptTo accept something unpleasant that you cannot change.
“She resigned herself to a long wait in the corridor.”
3verbchessIn chess or a similar game, to admit defeat before the end.
“Black resigned on move thirty-one.”
Resign is Latin resignāre, made of re- and signāre, 'to seal, stamp'. To resign was to unseal — to cancel a thing by breaking the seal you had pressed into the wax yourself. Handing in your notice is still exactly that: taking your name back off it.
Latin
resignāre — to unseal, annul, assign, resign
Middle French
resigner
Anglo-Norman
resigner
English, today
resign
Built from
From Anglo-Norman resigner, Middle French resigner, and its source, Latin resignāre (“to unseal, annul, assign, resign”), from re- + signāre (“to seal, stamp”). re-sign.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA