Library / English Dictionary

DEPRIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take away

Synonyms:

deprive; impoverish

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "deprive" is one way to...):

decline; worsen (grow worse)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "deprive"):

disestablish (deprive (an established church) of its status)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody of something

Antonym:

enrich (make better or improve in quality)

Derivation:

deprivation (act of depriving someone of food or money or rights)

deprivation (a state of extreme poverty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Keep from having, keeping, or obtaining

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "deprive" is one way to...):

keep back; withhold (hold back; refuse to hand over or share)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "deprive"):

disenfranchise; disfranchise (deprive of voting rights)

impoverish (make poor)

disinherit; disown (prevent deliberately (as by making a will) from inheriting)

bilk (evade payment to)

dock (deprive someone of benefits, as a penalty)

tongue-tie (deprive of speech)

starve (deprive of a necessity and cause suffering)

famish; starve (deprive of food)

ablactate; wean (gradually deprive (infants and young mammals) of mother's milk)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody of something

Derivation:

deprivation (act of depriving someone of food or money or rights)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Take away possessions from someone

Example:

The Nazis stripped the Jews of all their assets

Synonyms:

deprive; divest; strip

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "deprive" is one way to...):

take (take into one's possession)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "deprive"):

disarm; unarm (take away the weapons from; render harmless)

expropriate (deprive of possessions)

clean (deprive wholly of money in a gambling game, robbery, etc.)

dispossess (deprive of the possession of real estate)

clean out (deprive completely of money or goods)

unclothe (strip)

unsex (deprive of sex or sexual powers)

orphan (deprive of parents)

bereave (deprive through death)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody of something

Sentence example:

They deprive him of all his money

Derivation:

deprivation (act of depriving someone of food or money or rights)

deprivation (a state of extreme poverty)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The biologists looked at the genes in root tip cells to understand whether and how the genes were activated when covered with water and deprived of oxygen.

(Grains in the rain, National Science Foundation)

Two days passed in this manner before he was able to speak, and I often feared that his sufferings had deprived him of understanding.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

With almost every other man in the world, it would be an alarming prospect; but Edward's affection and constancy nothing can deprive me of I know.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

You have deprived the best years of his life of that independence which was no less his due than his desert.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

“To be depriving themselves of the advantage of other eyes and other judgments, might be an evil even beyond the loss of present pleasure.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Ischemic brain damage in which the entire brain is deprived of oxygen.

(Hypoxic Encephalopathy, NCI Thesaurus)

The scientists found that the larvae oriented to the magnetic northwest in the chamber, and, although deprived of all other environmental cues, oriented toward the same magnetic direction in the MagLab.

(North Atlantic haddock use magnetic compass to guide them, National Science Foundation)

But when the team checked the activity of the microglial cells across the four groups, they found that it had also ramped up in the chronically sleep-deprived group.

(Lack of Sleep Makes Brain to Literally Eat Itself, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This deprives people within 100 kilometres of the coast, especially children, of important and easily accessible nutrients.

(Fairer fish trade could fix nutrient deficiencies in coastal countries, SciDev.Net)

It was clear to me, from the strength of the glasses, that the wearer must have been very blind and helpless when deprived of them.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)