What does deprive mean?
Deprive is a transitive verb meaning to take away or withhold from a person or thing something they need, want, or have a right to — food, freedom, education, sleep, or opportunity. It is used almost exclusively in the construction "deprive someone of something," as in "The siege deprived the city of fresh water." The word carries a distinctly negative connotation: it implies loss, hardship, or injustice rather than simple absence, which is why it appears so often in discussions of poverty, punishment, and human rights. Its adjective form, deprived, describes people or areas suffering such lack (a deprived childhood), while deprivation names the condition itself. Derived from the Latin privare, "to rob or separate," deprive entered English in the late Middle Ages and has retained both its form and its serious tone ever since.
verbTo prevent someone from having or enjoying something, especially something regarded as necessary or valuable; to take something away from someone or something.
- To deny a person or thing the possession, use, or enjoyment of something (usually with 'of').
"The war deprived thousands of children of a basic education."
"No child should be deprived of a decent education."
"Prisoners were deprived of all contact with the outside world."
"Deprive" and "depraved" share the same Latin root — yet one means taking away a person's comforts and the other means corrupting their character.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of deprive
Deprive comes from the Latin privare, meaning to strip, rob, or separate from, via the past-participial stem privatus. English adopted the word in the 14th century through Old French priver, initially with senses relating to removal from office or rank before broadening to its modern general sense of withholding something. It shares this Latin root with privation, private, and deprave.
Related word forms
How deprive is actually used
Deprive is almost always used in the pattern 'deprive someone/something of something' and carries a strongly negative connotation, implying that what is taken is necessary, rightful, or valued. It belongs to formal and neutral registers alike and is common in legal, social, and medical contexts.
Easily confused with deprive
Deprave means to make morally bad or corrupt, while deprive means to withhold or take away something needed.