lexicow

deprive

/dɪˈpraɪv//dɪˈpraɪv/·verb
A candle burns steady and content. Then a glass jar lowers over it and seals it in. Cut off from the air it needs, the flame does not gutter at once — it just stops being fed, shrinking and dimming until it goes out, leaving a thin curl of smoke. It was never struck or pinched; it was only kept from the one thing it could not make for itself, and that, given a moment, was enough.
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Definition

To deprive is to take away or withhold something needed — to keep a person, place, or process from what it cannot do without. From Latin deprivare, it is stronger and more deliberate than simply lacking: someone or something does the depriving. Deprive a plant of light and it goes dormant; deprive a region of water and the land begins to fail. It takes the pattern 'deprive X of Y', and the thing held back is almost always essential, which is what gives the word its edge of harm or injustice.

Examples

  • Shut the blinds for a week and you deprive the seedlings of light until they go dormant.
  • Heavy censorship deprives citizens of the information they need to choose well.
  • Drought deprived the valley of water and slowly began to deplete the soil of life.

Collocations

deprive of·sleep-deprived·deprive someone of·deprived areas

Synonyms

dispossess·strip·deny·divest·rob

Antonyms

provide·supply·endow

Word family

deprivation (noun)·deprived (adjective)

In TOEFL & IELTS

Essential for IELTS on social issues ('deprived neighbourhoods', 'sleep deprivation') and TOEFL on biology and rights. Lock in the structure deprive somebody/something OF something — the 'of' is not optional. The noun deprivation is heavily tested. Separate it from deplete (to use a reserve up) and withhold (to refuse to release): to deprive is to keep a needy thing from what it requires.