Word.ws English Dictionary

deputise

deputise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of deputize.

Meaning of deputize

Verb

deputize (third-person singular simple present deputizes, present participle deputizing, simple past and past participle deputized)

  1. (transitive) To officially empower, authorize, pronounce, and establish (someone) to be a deputy.
  2. (transitive) to officially empower and authorize (someone) to act as a substitute in one's role or office
    • I deputize you to act for me while I'm away.
  3. (intransitive) To act as a substitute for a person in their role or office
    • Gringoire, on the other hand, stuck with equal firmness to the fact that he was deputizing for a brother officer who was sick — so sick that he had mislaid his orders.1929, Ford Maddox Ford, No Enemy

Forms of deputise

third-person singular presentdeputises
present participledeputising
past participledeputised
pastdeputised

Questions about deputise

What is deputise the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of?
Deputise is the non-Oxford British English standard spelling of deputize.

Words near deputise in the dictionary

  1. deputies
  2. deputing
  3. deputinisation
  4. deputinization
  5. deputisation
  6. deputise
  7. deputised
  8. deputises
  9. deputising
  10. deputive
  11. deputization

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deputise (page history and authors); deputize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “deputise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deputise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.