To consign someone or something to some inferior, obscure, or trivial rank, status, position, place, category, etc. Often used in passive constructions. So brief was his presidency that William Henry Harrison has been relegated to little more than a footnote in American history. Rather than firing me outright, they've relegated me to a thankless, dead-end job in the company. Failing to find critical success in the art work, his work has been relegated to the lobbies of cheap hotels and cafés.