depose
Americanverb (used with object)
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deposes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
deposed,
past participle, past
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deposing
present participle
-
to remove from office or position, especially high office.
The people deposed the dictator.
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to testify or affirm under oath, especially in a written statement.
to depose that it was true.
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Law. to take the deposition of; examine under oath.
Two lawyers deposed the witness.
verb (used without object)
-
deposes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
deposed,
past participle, past
-
deposing
present participle
verb
-
(tr) to remove from an office or position, esp one of power or rank
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law to testify or give (evidence, etc) on oath, esp when taken down in writing; make a deposition
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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deposesimple
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deposessimple
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have deposedperfect
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has deposedperfect
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am deposingprogressive
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are deposingprogressive
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is deposingprogressive
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have been deposingperfect progressive
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has been deposingperfect progressive
Past
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deposedsimple
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had deposedperfect
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was deposingprogressive
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were deposingprogressive
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had been deposingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of depose
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English deposen, from Old French deposer “to put down,” equivalent to de- de- + poser, from unattested Vulgar Latin posāre, Late Latin pausāre; see pose 1
Explanation
When you force someone in authority out of office — a politician, a king, or a cheerleading captain — you depose them. The word almost always associated with an act of deposition is coup, meaning a sudden act of overthrowing of the government. Sometimes bloodless, more often not. On a less dramatic scale, lawyers depose less exalted folk every day; it means they take evidence from them under oath, possibly to be used in a court case later. Often those giving evidence (mobsters, murderers, financial scammers, etc,) are unwilling to talk to lawyers, hence the suggestion of a stripping away of power and dignity implicit in the term depose.
Vocabulary lists containing depose
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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In the Time of the Butterflies
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President Obama's Speech at the United Nations
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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:
Pitt’s legal team previously attempted to depose Stoli executive Alexey Oliynik in 2025, claiming that he had relevant information pertaining to the Jolie deal.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
Sadie Weldon, a private citizen, sought to depose the Lilith Fund’s deputy director using a special Texas mechanism called a 202 petition that allows people to investigate a potential claim before filing suit.
From Slate ● Jan. 16, 2026
Bush sent troops in 1989 to depose and arrest the president of Panama, Manuel Noriega.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2025
The top generals - Hemedti among them - met and decided to depose Bashir instead.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2025
At the conference that December, we in the Youth League knew we had the votes to depose Dr. Xuma.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
One night, after shooting wrapped for the day, Ruffalo went home to prepare for a big scene in which Bilott deposes DuPont’s CEO.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 29, 2019
As Hagopian writes, “ESSA deposes one of the cruelest aspects of the test-and-punish policy under NCLB: the so-called ‘Adequate Yearly Progress’ annual test score improvement requirement that labeled nearly every American school failing.”
From Salon ● Jan. 9, 2016
About that show, he deposes, “People said it increased their appreciation for the radical potentials in Elizabethan drama.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 11, 2014
Three months of missed targets, and the catfish deposes the leaders he or she has been shadowing.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2013
Following is the complaint on which he was held: Raymond H. Sarfaty, being duly sworn, deposes and says that he is an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
From New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 4, July, 1915 April-September, 1915 by Various
The tablet records a royal grant and indicates that Tiglath-pileser probably ruled from roughly 763-762 BCE before eventually being deposed.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
Earlier this year, civil rights attorneys deposed two ICE deportation officers and learned the agency had shifted from conducting targeted enforcement operations to making collateral arrests.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Tolomeo, the deposed king of Egypt, is hiding out on the island of Cyprus disguised as a shepherd.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Its other key ally, Bashar al Assad had been deposed as president of Syria and fled to Moscow.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
Of all the Communist leaders deposed in the years bracketing the collapse of the Soviet Union, only Nicolae Ceaujescu met a violent death.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing -- who ordered the coup deposing Suu Kyi and now serves as civilian president -- on Thursday said she would serve the remainder of her sentence at a "designated residence".
From Barron's ● Apr. 30, 2026
Back in the 9th District, once Ross stepped aside and let her critics take the microphone to make the case for deposing her, they lost steam.
From Slate ● May 6, 2024
Manly first heard about Ramos in the late 1990s, when he was deposing then-Orange Bishop Norman McFarland — who presided over my First Communion — in another sex abuse case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2024
They've tasted the power that comes from deposing a leader and they want more.
From Salon ● Jan. 12, 2024
They claimed not the right of giving away kingdoms, crowning emperors, deposing princes, and absolving their subjects from their oaths of allegiance.
From Popery! As it Was and as it Is Also, Auricular Confession; And Popish Nunneries by William Hogan
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