depose

Etymology

Recorded since c.1300, from Middle English, from Old French deposer, from de- (“down”) + poser (“to put, place”). Deposition (1494 in the legal sense) belongs to deposit, but that related word and depose became thoroughly confused.

verb

1. (literally, transitive) To put down; to lay down; to deposit; to lay aside; to put away.
2. (transitive) To remove (a leader) from (high) office, without killing the incumbent.
   A deposed monarch may go into exile as pretender to the lost throne, hoping to be restored in a subsequent revolution.
3. (law, intransitive) To give evidence or testimony, especially in response to interrogation during a deposition
4. (law, transitive) To interrogate and elicit testimony from during a deposition; typically done by a lawyer.
   After we deposed the claimant we had enough evidence to avoid a trial.
5. (intransitive) To take or swear an oath.
6. To testify; to bear witness; to claim; to assert; to affirm.
   to depose the yearly rent or valuation of lands c. 1598, Francis Bacon, The Office of Compositions for Alienations