or DEPRECATIVE, in Theology,** a term applied to the manner of performing some ceremonies in the form of prayer.

The form of absolution is deprecatory in the Greek church, being conceived in these terms, *May God absolve you:* whereas it is in the declarative form in the Latin church, and in some of the reformed churches, *I absolve you.*

**DEPRESSION of the Pole.** When a person sails or travels towards the equator, he is said to depress the pole; because as many degrees as he approaches nearer the equator, so many degrees will the pole be nearer the horizon. This phenomenon arises from the spherical figure of the earth.

**DEPRESSION of a Star, or of the Sun,** is its distance below the horizon; and is measured by an arc of a vertical circle, intercepted between the horizon and the place of the star.

**DEPRESSION of the Visible Horizon, or Dip of the Horizon,** denotes its sinking or dipping below the true horizontal plane, by the observer's eye being raised above the surface of the sea; in consequence of which, the observed altitude of an object is by so much too great.