deputy
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- deputee (archaic)
EtymologyEdit
From French député, from Late Latin deputatus (“appointed”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
deputy (plural deputies)
- One appointed as the substitute of others, and empowered to act for them, in their name or their behalf; a substitute in office.
- the deputy of a prince
- The deputy sheriff was promoted after his senior retired.
- As the deputy store manager, he is able to fire staff.
- Synonyms: lieutenant, representative, delegate, vice, vicegerent
- (mining, historical) A person employed to install and remove props, brattices, etc. and to clear gas, for the safety of the miners.
- (France) A member of the Chamber of Deputies, formerly called Corps Législatif.
- (Ireland) a member of Dáil Éireann, or the title of a member of Dáil Éireann. (Normally capitalised in both cases).
- Eamon Ryan is a deputy in the Dáil.
- At today's meeting, Deputy Ryan will speak on local issues.
- (US) a law enforcement officer who works for the county sheriff's office; a deputy sheriff or sheriff's deputy; the entry level rank in such an agency.
- The sheriff's deputies took the suspect into custody.
- Deputy Jones was promoted to corporal today.
Usage notesEdit
Deputy is used in combination with the names of various executive officers, to denote an assistant empowered to act in their name; as, deputy collector, deputy marshal, deputy sheriff. In the British coal mining industry, the word referred to as a deputy overman, which was roughly akin to a foreman in other industries.
SynonymsEdit
HyponymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
representative
|
legislator — See also translations at legislator
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See alsoEdit
VerbEdit
deputy (third-person singular simple present deputies, present participle deputying, simple past and past participle deputied)
- (informal, nonstandard) to deputise
Further readingEdit
- “deputy”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- “deputy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
- “deputy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “deputy” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- deputy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- deputy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
- “deputy” in Roget's Thesaurus, T. Y. Crowell Co., 1911.