deposition
[dep-uh-zish-uh n, dee-puh-]
- removal from an office or position.
- the act or process of depositing: deposition of the documents with the Library of Congress.
- the state of being deposited or precipitated: deposition of soil at the mouth of a river.
- something that is deposited.
- Law.
- the giving of testimony under oath.
- the testimony so given.
- a statement under oath, taken down in writing, to be used in court in place of the spoken testimony of the witness.
- Ecclesiastical.
- the interment of the body of a saint.
- the reinterment of the body or the relics of a saint.
- (initial capital letter) a work of art depicting Christ being lowered from the Cross.
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Origin of deposition
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for deposition
Contemporary Examples
Also, at the time of his deposition Thicke had been off of pills for two months, because his wife left him in February.
Hey, Hey, Hey Robin Thicke Was Too Vicodin Wasted to Really Write ‘Blurred Lines’Amy Zimmerman
September 16, 2014
Evans used a “pressure point control technique,” one of the officers testified in his deposition.
A brief bio is to be found in a deposition she gave in the criminal case before the felony charge was dropped.
At the time of the second deposition, Tihen had been in office for more than a year.
In a deposition given under hypnosis two years later, he remembered that he “woke up, saw my death, and looked around.”
Historical Examples
In support of his deposition he produced his billet de garde, dated the 8th.
The officers of justice act, and send their deposition to the Court.
The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, CompleteDuc de Saint-Simon
I always believed in the truth of his deposition before the judge.
The Fortune of the RougonsEmile Zola
For it is necessary to read their deposition as of public accusers.
"And qualified to administer an oath and take your deposition," said the minister.
Hidden HandEmma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth
deposition
- law
- the giving of testimony on oath
- the testimony so given
- the sworn statement of a witness used in court in his absence
- the act or instance of deposing
- the act or an instance of depositing
- something that is deposited; deposit
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Word Origin
C14: from Late Latin dēpositiō a laying down, disposal, burying, testimony
Deposition
- the taking down of Christ's body from the Cross or a representation of this
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for deposition
n.
late 14c., "dethronement, putting down from dignity or authority," from Old French deposicion (12c.), from Latin depositionem (nominative depositio), noun of action from past participle stem of deponere (see deposit (v.)).
Meaning "statements made in court under oath" is from early 15c. Meaning "action of depositing" is from 1590s. Properly, deposition belongs to deposit, but deposit and depose have become totally confused and English deposition partakes of senses belonging to both.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
deposition
[dĕp′ə-zĭsh′ən]
- The accumulation or laying down of matter by a natural process, as the laying down of sediments in a river or the accumulation of mineral deposits in a bodily organ.
- The process of changing from a gas to a solid without passing through an intermediate liquid phase. Carbon dioxide, at a pressure of one atmosphere, undergoes deposition at about -78 degrees Celsius. Compare sublimation.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.