lexicow

deposit

/dɪˈpɑːzɪt//dɪˈpɒzɪt/·verb
A hand feeds a thick block of notes into the tray of a cash machine; the machine draws it in and the balance on the screen clicks up a step, the glow warming. The hand brings another block, and another — three times over — and each time the counter jumps higher, 1,000 to 1,200 to 1,400 to 1,600, the rise plain to see. Value keeps moving from the world into the account, and the number on the screen only climbs.
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Definition

To deposit is to put money into an account or machine, raising the balance — and, more broadly, to set or lay something down, the way a river deposits silt. It comes from the Latin deponere, 'to put down'. In finance it is the everyday opposite of withdraw: value moves in rather than out, and savings accumulate. As a noun a deposit is the sum paid in, or the part-payment that secures a purchase before the rest is due.

Examples

  • She deposits part of every paycheck into a savings account.
  • The shop deposits its daily revenue at the bank each evening.
  • Over centuries the river deposited thick layers of silt across the plain.

Collocations

deposit money·deposit a cheque·make a deposit·deposit into an account·a security deposit

Synonyms

pay in·bank·lodge·save·place

Antonyms

withdraw·spend

See also

Word family

deposit (noun)·depositor (noun)·deposition (noun)

In TOEFL & IELTS

Two senses are tested: the financial 'deposit money into an account' and the physical 'sediment is deposited' in TOEFL geology lectures. The noun is just as common — 'a deposit' can be money paid in or a down payment ('a 10% deposit'). Preposition: deposit money INTO/in an account. Pair it with its opposite, withdraw, when describing accounts.