Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Determined, influenced, or controlled by something else.
  • adjective Grammar Subordinate to another clause, phrase, or word.
  • adjective Relying on or requiring the aid or support of another.
  • adjective Compulsively using a drug or other substance or engaging in a given behavior and unable to stop without experiencing withdrawal or other significant physiological or psychological symptoms.
  • adjective Archaic Hanging down.
  • noun One who relies on another, especially for financial support.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Hanging down; pendent: as, a dependent leaf.
  • Subordinate; subject to, under the control of, or needing aid from some extraneous source: as, the dependent condition of childhood; all men are largely dependent upon one another.
  • Contingent; resultant; derived from as a source; related to some ground or condition: as, an effect may be dependent on some unknown cause.
  • Relative: as, dependent beauty (which see, under beauty).
  • In law, conditioned on something else: as, the covenant of the purchaser of land to pay for it is usually so expressed in the contract of purchase as to be dependent on performance of the vendor's covenant to convey. Such covenants are usually mutually dependent.
  • noun One who depends on or looks to another for support or favor; a retainer: as, the prince was followed by a numerous train of dependents.
  • noun That which depends on something else; a consequence; a corollary.
  • noun [As the spelling of this class of words depends solely upon whether they happen to be regarded as derived directly from the French or directly from the Latin, and as usage is divided, there is no good reason for insisting upon a distinction in spoiling between the noun and the adjective, as is done by many, the former being spelled dependant and the latter dependent.]

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who depends; one who is sustained by another, or who relies on another for financial support or favor; a hanger-on; a retainer.
  • noun That which depends; corollary; consequence.
  • adjective Hanging down.
  • adjective Relying on, or subject to, something else for support; not able to exist, or sustain itself, or to perform anything, without the will, power, or aid of something else; not self-sustaining; subordinate; -- often with on or upon. Opposite of independent.
  • adjective conditional; contingent or conditioned. Opposite of unconditional.
  • adjective addicted to drugs.
  • adjective (Law) one not binding until some connecting stipulation is performed.
  • adjective (Math.) a varying quantity whose changes are arbitrary, but are regarded as produced by changes in another variable, which is called the independent variable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Relying upon; depending upon
  • adjective : standing only after a preverbal particle
  • adjective of Scottish Gaelic verb forms Used in questions, negative sentences and after certain particles and prepositions.
  • adjective affecting the lower part of the body, such as the legs while standing up, or the back while supine
  • noun US One who relies on another for support
  • noun grammar An element in phrase or clause structure that is not the head. Includes complements modifiers and determiners.
  • noun grammar The aorist subjunctive or subjunctive perfective: a form of a verb not used independently but preceded by a particle to form the negative or a tense form. Found in Greek and in the Gaelic languages.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective being under the power or sovereignty of another or others
  • adjective held from above
  • noun a person who relies on another person for support (especially financial support)
  • adjective contingent on something else
  • adjective addicted to a drug
  • adjective (of a clause) unable to stand alone syntactically as a complete sentence
  • adjective relying on or requiring a person or thing for support, supply, or what is needed

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Originally dependant, from French dépendant, present participle of dépendre ("to hang down") (in English assimilated to Latin dēpendēntem).

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