Other forms: deprived, depriving, deprives
To deprive is to take away from somebody what they need. Deprive them of sleep, deprived of oxygen, deprive a child of.
It always takes of, and what follows is something necessary rather than merely wanted. Deprived as an adjective describes an area or a childhood lacking basic things, and it is the standard term in social policy — a deprived area, deprivation indices. Note sleep deprivation and sensory deprivation, both technical terms; and that deprive comes from the Latin for taking away what is one's own.
1verbdepriveTo take away from somebody what they need.
“The prisoners were deprived of food and water for two days.”
deprive is a taking away.
Medieval Latin deprivare is de- plus privare, to deprive, from privus, one's own. Private, privilege and privy come from the same word, so to deprive is to take away what is somebody's own.
Latin
dē-
Medieval Latin
dēprīvō
Old French
depriver
Middle English
depryven
English, today
deprive
From Middle English depryven, from Old French depriver, from Medieval Latin dēprīvō, from Latin dē- + prīvō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA