depone

D2E1P3O1N1E1
UK/dɪˈpəʊn/US/dɪˈpoʊn/US/diˈ-/

verb

To testify, especially in the form of a deposition.

“c. 1829?, Robert Southey, Inscription at Fort Augustus the obedient element / Lifts or depones its burthen”

Scrabble 9

Meanings

verbdepone (third-person singular simple present depones, present participle deponing, simple past and past participle deponed)

present singular third person depones · participle present deponing · participle past deponed · past deponed

  1. intransitivelawTo testify, especially in the form of a deposition.

    These two females did afterwards depone that Mr. Willet in his consternation uttered but one word

    1841, Charles Dickens, chapter LIV, in Barnaby Rudge
    1 more example

    The said William Aitken, being of new solemnly sworn, &c., depones he is a Burgess of Hawick, and had the property of a house which he now liferents, the fee being disponed to his son-in-law, Bailie Robert Scot, for the use of his son William, his daughter, Bailie Scot's wife, having paid the price of the house; depones sixty years ago Gilbert Elliot was tenant in Nether Southfield, who broke Hawick Common by plowing a part of it, which the Deponent saw at the Common-Riding when the Magistrates and other persons at the Common-Riding potched the ground he had plowed, and was then sown that he might not reap the crop of this.

    1898, R. S. Craig, Adam Laing, The Hawick Tradition of 1514: The Town's Common Flag and Seal, page 240
  2. transitivelawTo take the deposition of; to depose.
  3. obsoleteraretransitiveTo lay, as a stake; to wager.
  4. obsoletetransitiveTo lay down; to place

    c. 1829?, Robert Southey, Inscription at Fort Augustus the obedient element / Lifts or depones its burthen

Synonyms & antonyms

verbmake a deposition; declare under oath

Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*de
  2. Proto-Indo-European*déh₁
  3. Proto-Italic*dē
  4. Latindē
  5. Latindē-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*h₂ep
  7. Proto-Indo-European*h₂epó
  8. Proto-Indo-European*h₂pó
  9. Proto-Italic*po
  10. Proto-Indo-European*teḱ-
  11. Proto-Indo-European*tḱéytibf.
  12. Proto-Indo-European*tḱey-
  13. Proto-Indo-European*tḱinéti
  14. Proto-Italic*sinō
  15. Proto-Italic*pozinō
  16. Latinpōnō
  17. Latindēpōnō
  18. Englishdepone

From Latin dēpōnō (“lay down, deposit, entrust”).

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with depone

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Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

depone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/depone

MLA

“depone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/depone. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “depone,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/depone.

Source: depone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.