depend
/dɪˈpɛnd
/- It is very evident that the rigour with which merger control is enforced depends in part on the agenda of the Minister.
- The investment return depends solely on the difference between what you paid and what someone else pays you when you sell.
- This figure varies between blood banks, depending again on the testing methodologies and tests used in screening.
Synonyms
- As the months sped by, Jenny grew to rely and depend on Sammy more than ever before.
- Instead of depending on medication, I rely on exercise to keep my body healthy.
- Your child wants you to stay in control while they are out of control, so they can rely and depend on you.
- This meals-on-wheels and other services depend on financial support from the public.
- Small enterprises depend on community financial support to move from small to medium size.
- The media have gone from depending upon subscribers to depending upon advertisers for financial support.
Synonyms
- Draw dependency diagrams for the following examples; make sure you decide for every preposition whether it depends on a noun or a verb.
- An adjective can depend on a noun, but can it also depend on another adjective?
- The number of ribs that may depend from each panel is not critical to this invention.
- Each of these portions has slots formed therein and tongues which depend from each slot.
Usage
In informal use, it is quite common for the on to be dropped in sentences such as it all depends how you look at it (rather than it all depends on how you look at it), but in well-formed written English the on should be retained.
Phrases
depending on
it (or that) (all) depends
Origin
Late Middle English (in sense 3; also in the sense 'wait or be in suspense'): from Old French dependre, from Latin dependere, from de- 'down' + pendere 'hang'.
pendant from Middle English:
This was originally a term for an architectural decoration projecting downwards. It comes from penda(u)nt, an Old French word meaning ‘hanging’, from Latin pendere. The word was used from late Middle English for a jewel attached to clothing but later it was applied to one attached to a necklace. Use of the word for a light fitting hanging from the ceiling dates from the mid 19th century. Pending (mid 17th century) is an anglicization of French pendant. Pendulum (mid 17th century) is taken directly from Latin, as is pendulous (early 17th century). Suspend (Middle English) combined this root with sub- ‘from below’, compensation (Late Middle English) is something that ‘weighs against’ something that has happened, depend (Late Middle English) is ‘hang down’, and recompence (Late Middle English) originally ‘to weigh one thing against another’.