deprive
Americanverb (used with object)
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deprives,
present (3rd person singular)
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deprived,
past participle, past
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depriving
present participle
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to remove or withhold something from the enjoyment or possession of (a person or persons).
to deprive a man of life; to deprive a baby of candy.
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to remove from ecclesiastical office.
verb
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(foll by of) to prevent from possessing or enjoying; dispossess (of)
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archaic to remove from rank or office; depose; demote
Synonym Usage
See strip 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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deprivalnoun
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deprivernoun
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predepriveverb (used with object)
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deprivableadjective
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deprivativeadjective
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nondeprivableadjective
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self-deprivingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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deprivesimple
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deprivessimple
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have deprivedperfect
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has deprivedperfect
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am deprivingprogressive
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are deprivingprogressive
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is deprivingprogressive
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have been deprivingperfect progressive
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has been deprivingperfect progressive
Past
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deprivedsimple
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had deprivedperfect
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was deprivingprogressive
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were deprivingprogressive
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had been deprivingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of deprive
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English depriven, from Anglo-French, Old French depriver, from Medieval Latin dēprīvāre, equivalent to Latin dē- de- + prīvāre “to deprive” ( prīv(us) private + -āre infinitive suffix)
Explanation
Deprive means to keep from having. If your little brother gets loud and hyper every time he eats sweets, your parents might deprive him of sugary cereal and candy. Deprive can also mean to take away something that someone already had, or feels they deserve to have, like basic human rights. "A crowd gathered to protest the man's imprisonment for a crime he did not commit; they didn't want to allow the government to deprive him of his freedom." The word comes from the Latin, de", which means "entirely," and privare, which means "release from." Put together, they mean to "entirely release from." In this case, the imprisoned man's freedom is being "entirely released," or taken away, and he'll no longer have it.
Vocabulary lists containing deprive
The Declaration of Independence
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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
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Freak the Mighty
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The reversal follows criticism from teachers, nutritionists and parents who argued that removing eggs from school lunches could deprive children from poor families a key source of protein.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
A proud moment for those associated with the club, but it did deprive key players of the mid-season breather they normally would have had.
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
And if we deprive gay guys of their annual chance to make Mother’s Day about their personal taste in actresses, God help us all.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
“These conditions are excessive restrictions on his liberty that serve no justifiable purpose and deprive Mr. Allen of dignity while incarcerated.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2026
“What is cruder than to deprive such an unfortunate, withered woman and her little child of support?” he writes.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
His death also deprives Trump of one of his most trusted allies on Capitol Hill.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026
This particularly deprives eastern parts of the country of rainfall and sees a later start to the northern wet season -- though less chance of tropical cyclones.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
Arbor heats it to extreme temperatures and deprives it of enough oxygen to make the biomass fully combust.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025
Above ground it is a low-slung angular wisp of an object, whose cladding in mirrored steel deprives it of any sense of form or substance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2025
Reacting to the portrait in “a direct, straightforward fashion,” without the benefit of additional knowledge, deprives us of an understanding that is necessary for full appreciation.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
Unified letter shows that the school board was laying the legal groundwork to dismiss Carvalho for cause, which would have deprived him of contractual severance payments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
We had less, but we didn’t feel deprived.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
When cells were deprived of arginine, ribosomes, the cellular machines that assemble proteins, stalled while trying to produce MHC-1.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
A spokesperson for Daera said the court directed that the defendant be deprived of the ownership of all farmed animals and ordered the destruction of the animals.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
She also noted that she and the other suffragists had been deprived of letters, books, visitors, and decent food.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
In 2023, his team reported that depriving colon cancer cells of arginine caused them to accumulate more mutations.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
“A shorter timeline would be artificially compressed and risks depriving this Court of a full record on which to decide this $110 billion case.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
The brothers claim Ledward's "misconduct is causing ongoing harm" to Boseman's elderly parents and depriving them "of financial assets at a vulnerable age when such support is most critical".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
El Nino can also suppress the monsoon over South Asia, depriving India and other parts of the subcontinent of vital rain that supports hundreds of millions of people.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
Thanks in no small part to her decryptions, the Coast Guard was intercepting many more rumrunners, depriving the crime bosses of their profits.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
