Jump to content

deplete

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

Borrowed from Latin dēplētus (“empty”), from depleō. First attested in 1716; originally a medical term.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

deplete (third-person singular simple present depletes, present participle depleting, simple past and past participle depleted)

  1. (transitive) To reduce the amount of; to remove (a substance from something):
    The winter storm quickly depleted the salt supply of the county.
    • 1954 May, John W. Grant, “A Railway Requiem”, in Railway Magazine, page 352:
      Their numbers have been very heavily depleted in the last few years, and soon a most familiar part of the southern railway scene will have vanished: […] .
    • 1975, William Roscoe Kintner, Harvey Sicherman, Technology and International Politics: The Crisis of Wishing:
      ... depleting the minerals and fuels of the more developed states, leading to a scarcity of these crucial resources.
    • 1982, Are Current Emergency Planning Requirements Justified?: Workshop Proceedings:
      [page 1-54:] Here [in Gabon ...], concentrations of slightly enriched uranium were deposited as sediments in a stream bed and formed seven separate water moderated reactors which operated for thousands of years, depleting the uranium and producing fission products, plutonium and other actinides.
    1. (chemistry) To expend or separate a reactant.
    2. (medicine) To reduce the amount of a substance with a medication or medical procedure or due to a illness.
      Certain medications can deplete vitamin D.
    3. To use up, exhaust, or consume (power or resources).
      • 2007, John Zerzan, Silence‎[1]:
        Its reserves have been invaded and depleted.
      • 2022 October 25, L. J. Shrum, Elena Fumagalli, Tina M. Lowrey, “Coping with loneliness through consumption”, in Journal of Consumer Psychology, volume 33, number 2, →DOI, pages 441–465:
        Constant vigilance for social threats and the negative emotions it produces (e.g., anxiety) deplete self-regulatory resources.
    4. (physics, rare) To decrease the amount of an isotope (in a mixture of isotopes).
      Antonym: enrich
  2. (transitive) To empty or purge (something of a substance).
    The conservation project depleted the lake of algae.
    This drug can deplete the body of magnesium.
    • 1716, [John Radcliffe], “Electuarium Phthiſicum”, in Pharmacopœia Radcliffeana: or, Dr. Radcliff's Preſcriptions‎[2], second corrected edition, London: Charles Rivington, page 22:
      However, every Practitioner ought to be appriz'd of a ſtanding Truth in all Coughs of this Kind, that ſome proper Evacuations ought to precede, in order to revulſe the Motion from the Lungs to ſome distant Goal, as well as to deplete the Veſſels of ſuch a troubleſome Lodger.
    • 2005, Teresa Cutter, The 80/20 Diet: 12 Weeks to a Better Body, Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, page 21:
      ... deplete the body of minerals, causing osteoporosis.
    1. (chemistry) To clear a compound or solution (of a reactant).
      • 2017 February, James L. Smialek, “Cr2AlC Issues: Scale Adhesion”, in Unusual oxidative limitations for Al-MAX phases (NASA technical memorandum; 2017-219444)‎[3], Cleveland, Ohio: NASA, →OCLC, page 15:
        Cycling also produces layered scales, as repeated spallation further depletes the compound of Al and allows Cr2O3 formation.
    2. (physics) To clear a mixture of isotopes (of an isotope or isotopes).
      Antonym: enrich
      • 1999, Naomi H. Harley [et al.], A Review of the Scientific Literature As It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses‎[4], volume 7: Depleted Uranium, Santa Monica, CA: RAND, →ISBN, →OCLC, page xiii:
        The by-product of this process, which depletes uranium of its most radioactive isotopes, is called depleted uranium (DU).
  3. (intransitive) To diminish in quantity or strength; to be consumed.
    I noticed a couple of days ago how quickly the battery depletes.
    Depending on what you print, one color usually depletes faster than the others.
    • 1989 December 17, Edward Inman, “Disobeying An Order To Piss Lands Transsexual In Isolation”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 23, page 5:
      He said that if I could not urinate within the next few hours I would be charged with refusing to comply with an order and be punished. In spite of my inability to eat much due to my depleted physical condition, I drank as much as I could and still was unable to urinate within the prescribed time.
    1. (chemistry) To be expended or separated (of a substance).
      • 2008 June 24, Dagmar Hülsenberg, Alf Harnisch, Alexander Bismarck, “1. Silicate Glasses: A Class of Amorphous Materials”, in Microstructuring of Glasses, Berlin: Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 54:
        As can be seen in Fig. 1.49, FS 21 rapidly depletes of Li+ near the surface during the exposure to a NaNO3 melt and simultaneously enriches in Na+.
    2. (physics) To undergo loss of an isotope.
      • 2025 February 10, Farid Gamgami, “11. Nuclear Propulsion Technology and Systems”, in Space Propulsion and Spaceship Design: A System Perspective‎[5], Berlin: Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 54:
        Since uranium depletes in this process, it is called fissile fuel, nuclear fuel or simply fuel.

Antonyms

[edit]

Derived terms

[edit]
[edit]

Translations

[edit]

References

[edit]
  • “deplete”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Italian

[edit]

Adjective

[edit]

deplete

  1. feminine plural of depleto

Latin

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

dēplēte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēpleō
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=deplete&oldid=90406653"