deposition

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of deposing, as from high office.
2. n. The act of depositing, especially the laying down of matter by a natural process.
3. n. Something deposited; a deposit.
4. n. Law Testimony under oath, especially a statement by a witness that is written down or recorded for use in court at a later date.
5. n. The removal of Jesus from the cross.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of depositing; a laying down; lodgment or precipitation: as, the deposition of stones by a moving glacier, or of sediment by a river; the deposition of a metallic coating by galvanism.
2. n. That which is deposited or placed; a deposit.
3. n. The act of laying down or bringing to notice; presentation.
4. n. Declaration; assertion; specifically, in law, testimony taken under interrogatories, written or oral, before an authorized officer, to be used as a substitute for the production of the witness in open court. The term is sometimes loosely used to include affidavits, which are ex-parte statements in writing, sworn to, but not taken judicially or quasi-judicially, as are depositions strictly so called. In a deposition there may have been cross-examination; in an affidavit, none. A deposition is evidence; an affidavit may be evidence.
5. n. In civil and common law: A deposit; a naked bailment of goods, to be kept for the bailor without reward, and to be returned when he shall require it, or delivered according to the object or purpose of the original trust.
6. n. The thing so deposited.
7. n. The act of deposing a person from an office, or of depriving him of a dignity; specifically, the act of dethroning, or of removing from some important office or trust.
8. n. In surgery, the depression of the lens of the eye in the operation of couching.
9. n. The burial of a saint's body, or the act of transferring his remains or relics to a new resting-place or shrine; the festival commemorating such burial or translation: as, the Deposition of St. Martin.
10. n. In geology, the accumulation of sediments, or the precipitation of minerals (particularly ores) from solution.

Wiktionary

1. n. The removal of someone from office.
2. n. The act of depositing material, especially by a natural process; the resultant deposit.
3. n. chemistry The production of a thin film of material onto an existing surface.
4. n. law The process of taking sworn testimony out of court; the testimony so taken.
5. n. meteorology The formation of snow or frost directly from water vapor.
6. n. physics The transformation of a gas into a solid without an intermediate liquid phase (reverse of sublimation)
7. n. religion The formal placement of relics in a church or shrine, and the feast day commemorating it.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of depositing or deposing; the act of laying down or thrown down; precipitation.
2. n. The act of bringing before the mind; presentation.
3. n. The act of setting aside a sovereign or a public officer; deprivation of authority and dignity; displacement; removal.
4. n. That which is deposited; matter laid or thrown down; sediment; alluvial matter.
5. n. An opinion, example, or statement, laid down or asserted; a declaration.
6. n. (Law) The act of laying down one's testimony in writing; also, testimony laid or taken down in writing, under oath or affirmation, before some competent officer, and in reply to interrogatories and cross-interrogatories.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the natural process of laying down a deposit of something
2. n. (law) a pretrial interrogation of a witness; usually conducted in a lawyer's office
3. n. the act of deposing someone; removing a powerful person from a position or office
4. n. the act of putting something somewhere