Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DE-PO'NENT, n.

1. One who deposes, or gives a deposition under oath; one who gives written testimony to be used as evidence in a court of justice. With us in New England, this word is never used, I believe, for a witness who gives oral testimony in court. In England, a deponent is one who gives answers under oath to interrogatories exhibited in chancery.
2. A deponent verb.