- depend
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Analogous words: lean, incline (see SLANT vb)2 Depend, hinge, hang, turn are comparable when they mean to rest or, especially, to be contingent upon something uncertain or variable or indeterminable. All are normally followed by on or upon.Depend, which literally means to hang or be suspended, suggests an element of mental suspense which makes forecasting impossible. It often suggests uncertainty of a thing with reference to circumstances yet to take place, facts not yet known, or a decision yet to be made{
our trip depends upon the weather
}{his going to college will depend on his ability to earn enough money to cover his living expenses
}{another motive is the conviction that winning the best satisfaction of later life will depend on possessing this power to think— Eliot
}It may suggest also a variability that rests upon a difference in attitude or point of view{the sterling morate of strikers. This may mean either a staunch fidelity to law and order, or willingness to overturn a motor bus in the street. ... It depends on who is speaking— Montague
}Hinge is sometimes used interchangeably with depend; it may retain much of its literal suggestion of a movable part (as a door or a gate) that opens or closes upon hinges and then usually implies the cardinal (see under ESSENTIAL 2) point upon which a decision, a controversy, or an outcome ultimately rests. In such use it suggests not so much mental suspense as uncertainty tempered by the certainty that the matter will go one way or the other{the outcome of the war hinges on the ability of our forces to outmove every strategic move of the enemy
}{the point on which the decision must finally hinge— Thirlwall
}{the whole case being built up by Mr. Kennon was going to hinge in large part upon a single issue—was Clifford under the influence of liquor— Basso
}Hang likewise may interchange with depend, but more precisely it suggests a point of support such as is characteristic of the literal action of hanging; the term therefore stresses not so much the uncertainty of the event as the weakness or the strength of what gives validity, authority, or credibility to something (as a doctrine, a belief, or a course of action) or of what points the way to fulfillment or successful performance{the truth of the testimony hangs on his word only
}{the election hangs on a single vote
}{a good deal . . . hangs on the meaning, if any, of this short word full— T. S. Eliot
}Turn often comes close to hinge in its meaning{great events often turn upon very small circumstances— Swift
}It as often differs from hinge in suggesting a rotation or pivoting rather than a going one way or the other and, therefore, in implying a dependence upon something that may be variable or casual{the action of the play turns upon a secret marriage
}{his plots turn on the vicissitudes of climbing the success-ladder— Fadiman
}{the great anxiety of each disputant seemed to turn upon striking the first blow— Thorp
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
