depute

present singular third person deputes · participle present deputing · participle past deputed · past deputed

1. obsoleteTo assign (someone or something) to or for something.
2. To delegate (a task, etc.) to a subordinate.

   Will Wyatt having moved up a notch, the project was deputed to a second team of producers whose judgement I didn't trust.

   2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 229

3. To deputize (someone), to appoint as deputy.

   Some persons, deputed by a meeting.

   1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   There is no man deputed of the king to hear thee.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 15:3

   Viewing the forces arrayed against him at the G20, President Vladimir Putin deputed Lavrov to attend the two-day event in his stead, and for a brief moment it appeared to have been too much.

   2022 November 15, Patrick Wintour, “Sergei Lavrov, a fixture of Russian diplomacy facing his toughest test in Ukraine”, in The Guardian

4. To appoint; to assign; to choose.

   The most conspicuous places in cities are usually deputed for the erection of statues.

   c. 1675, Isaac Barrow, The Duty of Thanksgiving

plural deputes

1. ScotlandA deputy.

   […] discharging hereby the said sheriff and his deputes […]

   1774, George Dallas, A System of Stiles, page 99