Deposition

The testimony of a witness reduced to writing, in due form of law, by virtue of a commission or other authority of a competent tribunal, or according to the provisions of some statute law, to be used on the trial of some question of fact in a court of justice. In some states it is applied to the testimony taken on a preliminary hearing, and reduced to writing by the committing magistrate. In its generic sense, it embraces all written evidence verified by oath, and includes affidavits, but in legal language, a distinction is maintained between depositions and affidavits.

3 Blatchf. (U. S.) 456.

In its technical sense, it is confined to the written testimony of a witness given in a judicial proceeding.

53 Am. Dec. 270.

In Ecclesiastical Law. The act of depriving a clergyman, by a competent tribunal, of his clerical orders, to punish him for some offense, and to prevent his acting in future in his clerical character.

Ayliffe, Par. 206.