depute
Americanverb (used with object)
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deputes,
present (3rd person singular)
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deputed,
past participle, past
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deputing
present participle
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to appoint as one's substitute, representative, or agent.
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to assign (authority, a function, etc.) to a deputy.
verb
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to appoint as an agent, substitute, or representative
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to assign or transfer (authority, duties, etc) to a deputy; delegate
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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deputesimple
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deputessimple
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have deputedperfect
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has deputedperfect
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am deputingprogressive
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are deputingprogressive
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is deputingprogressive
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have been deputingperfect progressive
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has been deputingperfect progressive
Past
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deputedsimple
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had deputedperfect
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was deputingprogressive
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were deputingprogressive
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had been deputingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of depute
1350–1400; Middle English deputen < Anglo-French, Old French deputer to assign < Late Latin dēputāre to allot, Latin: to consider, equivalent to dē- de- + putāre to think
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 advocate depute added: "The accused's vehicle crashed head-on, which caused both vehicles to come to a stop."
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Fiscal depute David Orr said that Nicholson, from Newbie, near Annan, had been the focus of Operation Epazote, a Home Office inquiry into human trafficking at TN Trawlers.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026
Advocate depute Adrian Stalker said that shortly before the struggle, Smith was seen in the spirits aisle at the supermarket and a staff member became suspicious that she might be shoplifting.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2026
Advocate depute Scott McKenzie told the court that Colville, an early years assistant, had no previous convictions.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2025
Yet the task seemed to Denis too precarious to depute, and worming every inch of his way, it took him till February to penetrate fifteen feet.
From Denis Dent A Novel by Ernest W. Hornung
Thirdly, those on more than £60,000 - essentially some heads and deputes - will receive a flat pay rise of £3,000.
From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2023
Under the terms of the latest offer, pay rises would be capped for those earning above £60,000 - principally some heads and deputes.
From BBC ● Nov. 30, 2022
The deputes start moving toward him and he starts walking at them again.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 23, 2022
At about 10:40 p.m., deputes in Nash County tried to pull the vehicle over, Stone said.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 12, 2022
"He deputes me to show you what we have."
From Lady Connie by Mrs. Humphry Ward
"But media teams deputed inside Jinnah Convention Centre do not know what's happening outside."
From Barron's ● Apr. 11, 2026
"So far we have captured 10 leopards," says AK Singh, the forest official deputed of the district.
From BBC ● May 18, 2023
When he failed to do so, his cousin Amy Lowell took on the task: “I like to imagine that the task has been deputed to me in his stead.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 29, 2022
He was usually deputed to pick up the opposing playmaker and the coach Bobby Haarms described him as being "like a kamikaze pilot" as he pursued him, often deep into opposition territory.
From The Guardian ● May 22, 2013
Governor Bradford and others deputed from the church at Plymouth, coming into the assembly in the hour of the solemnity, gave them the right hand of fellowship.
From Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast by Samuel Adams Drake
Amid fresh cries of "Shame!" irate M. P.'s exacted a promise that there be no "deputing."
From Time Magazine Archive
Up and down the lines he went, peering into tents, digging at kits and deputing members of his retinue to test them for tooth-brushes.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, June 14, 1916 by Various
"Don't be deputing people to go on reckless errands!" she vociferated.
From Hung Lou Meng, Book II Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books by H. Bencraft Joly
The white men, deputing with the consent of all the chiefs, were to be allowed to pass down the river.
From Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
This resulted in Dost Mahomed sending his son and heir-apparent, Sardar Ghulam Haidar Khan, to Peshawar, and deputing him to act as his Plenipotentiary in the negotiations.
From Forty-one years in India From Subaltern To Commander-In-Chief by Frederick Sleigh Roberts
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.
