| English Dictionary |
DEPENDANT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Dictionary entry overview: What does dependant mean?
• DEPENDANT (noun)
The noun DEPENDANT has 1 sense:
1. a person who relies on another person for support (especially financial support)
Familiarity information: DEPENDANT used as a noun is very rare.
• DEPENDANT (adjective)
The adjective DEPENDANT has 2 senses:
1. contingent on something else
2. addicted to a drug
Familiarity information: DEPENDANT used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who relies on another person for support (especially financial support)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Synonyms:
dependant; dependent
Hypernyms ("dependant" is a kind of...):
receiver; recipient (a person who receives something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dependant"):
charge (a person committed to your care)
minion (a servile or fawning dependant)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Contingent on something else
Synonyms:
dependant; dependent; qualified
Similar:
conditional (imposing or depending on or containing a condition)
Derivation:
depend (be contingent upon (something that is elided))
Sense 2
Meaning:
Addicted to a drug
Synonyms:
dependant; dependent; drug-addicted; hooked; strung-out
Similar:
addicted (compulsively or physiologically dependent on something habit-forming)
Context examples
CpG-28 has immunomodulatory properties with direct activation of B-lymphocytes, dendritic and NK cells resulting in the stimulation of innate immunity and antibody-dependant cell cytotoxicity (ADCC).
(CpG-28 Oligodeoxynucleotide, NCI Thesaurus)
The C-terminal region of F-box proteins are also composed of various modular domain that interact with target substrates, often in a phosphorylation dependant manner.
(F-Box Domain, NCI Thesaurus)
The enigma then was explained: this affable and kind little widow was no great dame; but a dependant like myself.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Daptomycin has a distinct mechanism of action, in which it binds to bacterial membrane and causes rapid depolarization of the cell membrane due to calcium-dependant potassium efflux; the loss of membrane potential leads to inhibition of DNA, RNA and protein synthesis, resulting in bacterial cell death.
(Daptomycin, NCI Thesaurus)
Through activation of TLR9, a CpG ODN can directly stimulate B-lymphocytes, dendritic and NK cells, resulting in an increase in innate immunity and antibody-dependant cell cytotoxicity (ADCC).
(CpG-28 Oligodeoxynucleotide, NCI Thesaurus)
I was brought up a dependant; educated in a charitable institution.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I am obscure: Rivers is an old name; but of the three sole descendants of the race, two earn the dependant's crust among strangers, and the third considers himself an alien from his native country—not only for life, but in death.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It was strange: a bold, vindictive, and haughty gentleman seemed somehow in the power of one of the meanest of his dependants; so much in her power, that even when she lifted her hand against his life, he dared not openly charge her with the attempt, much less punish her for it.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Diana and Mary were soon to leave Moor House, and return to the far different life and scene which awaited them, as governesses in a large, fashionable, south-of-England city, where each held a situation in families by whose wealthy and haughty members they were regarded only as humble dependants, and who neither knew nor sought out their innate excellences, and appreciated only their acquired accomplishments as they appreciated the skill of their cook or the taste of their waiting-woman.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Don't sell eggs in the bottom of hens" (Breton proverb)
"The wound of words is worse than the wound of swords." (Arabic proverb)
"Hang a thief when he's young, and he'll no' steal when he's old." (Scottish proverb)