Short for department.
"The student applied to join the university's DEP to gain work experience while completing their degree later than usual."
Short for deposit.
Initialism of delayed entry program.
In plain English: DEP is a military program that lets you commit to joining the armed forces but start your service later.
"After graduating high school, she decided to join a dep to gain some work experience before college."
Usage: DEP (noun) refers specifically to a Delayed Entry Program, a military recruitment program that allows potential recruits time to prepare before basic training. Use it as an initialism-always capitalized and explained upon first use if necessary.
To deputize.
"The train will dep from the station at noon."
depart or departs
In plain English: To dep means to leave a place.
"The train will dep from platform three at 6:15 pm."
Usage: Dep is primarily used as the shortened, informal version of "depart." Use it in casual conversation or writing-avoid formal contexts where "depart" is preferred.
Initialism of Department of Environmental protection.
"The DEP announced new regulations to improve air quality in the region."
The word dep is a clipping of the word department that originated as slang at Imperial College around 1930. It entered common usage shortly after this initial appearance on campus.