deprive
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
to take something away from someone or prevent them from having it, especially something they need like sleep or food.
to prevent a person or place from having or using something; almost always takes a direct object followed by the preposition 'of'.
Simple“Working two jobs started to deprive him of the sleep he needed to stay healthy.”
In context“The new legislation threatened to deprive local communities of their right to protest against the proposed industrial development.”
UsageThis verb is transitive and requires the pattern 'deprive someone of something'.
PitfallThe prison deprived him his freedom. The prison deprived him of his freedom.You must use the preposition 'of' between the person and the thing being taken away.
- 02 C2 Proficiency
to officially remove a priest or member of the church from their position.
to divest a member of the clergy of their ecclesiastical office or benefice.
Simple“The bishop decided to deprive the priest of his position after the scandal.”
In context“Historical records show the vicar was deprived of his living during the political upheavals of the seventeenth century.”
UsageUsed specifically within church law and formal historical contexts.
Teacher's tipThis is a very rare, specialized sense; students will mostly encounter the 'deny/take away' meaning in modern English.
“Councils will need to consider whether losing a pub would deprive a community of a somewhere for people to gather.”
“American financial intelligence and asset-recovery tools could help dismantle that infrastructure , depriving these organizations of the resources they use to expand.”
From Middle English depryven, from Old French depriver, from Medieval Latin dēprīvō, from Latin dē- + prīvō.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.