delegation

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act of delegating.
• noun The condition of being delegated.
• noun A person or group of persons officially elected or appointed to represent another or others.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A sending or deputing; the act of putting in commission, or investing with authority to act for another; the appointment of a delegate.
• noun A person or body of persons deputed to act for another or for others; specifically, in the United States, the whole body of men who represent a single district or State in a representative assembly.
• noun In Austria-Hungary, one of two bodies summoned annually by the emperor to legislate on matters pertaining to the whole empire.
• noun In civil law, the act by which a debtor, in order to be freed from his debt, offers in his stead to the creditor another person, who binds himself for the debt.
• noun In French usage, a share certificate.
• noun In banking, an informal and non-negotiable letter employed by bankers for the transfer of a debt or credit.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of delegating, or investing with authority to act for another; the appointment of a delegate or delegates.
• noun One or more persons appointed or chosen, and commissioned to represent others, as in a convention, in Congress, etc.; the collective body of delegates; ; a deputation.
• noun (Rom. Law) A kind of novation by which a debtor, to be liberated from his creditor, gives him a third person, who becomes obliged in his stead to the creditor, or to the person appointed by him.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun An act of delegating.
• noun A group of delegates used to discuss issues with an opponent.
• noun computing : A method dispatching technique describing the lookup and inheritance rules for self-referential calls.
• noun law : A contract whereby the original debtor substitutes a new debtor in his stead, with the creditor’s permission.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a group of representatives or delegates
• noun authorizing subordinates to make certain decisions