Meanings
present singular third person depones · participle present deponing · participle past deponed · past deponed
- 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 Rudge1 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 - transitivelawTo take the deposition of; to depose.
- obsoleteraretransitiveTo lay, as a stake; to wager.
- obsoletetransitiveTo lay down; to place
c. 1829?, Robert Southey, Inscription at Fort Augustus the obedient element / Lifts or depones its burthen
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*de
- Proto-Indo-European*déh₁
- Proto-Italic*dē
- Latindē
- Latindē-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂ep
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂epó
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂pó
- Proto-Italic*po
- Proto-Indo-European*teḱ-
- Proto-Indo-European*tḱéytibf.
- Proto-Indo-European*tḱey-
- Proto-Indo-European*tḱinéti
- Proto-Italic*sinō
- Proto-Italic*pozinō
- Latinpōnō
- Latindēpōnō
- Englishdepone
From Latin dēpōnō (“lay down, deposit, entrust”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with depone
Anagrams
Cite this entry
depone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/depone
“depone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/depone. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “depone,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/depone.
Source: depone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.