Third person singular present tense of deplete; uses up or reduces the supply of something.
From 'deplete' (Latin 'de-' + 'plere' to empty) + '-s' (third person singular marker). 'Deplete' entered English from French in the 1700s describing the reduction of supplies.
When someone says 'overfishing depletes ocean populations,' they're using a word that became super common only in the environmental movement—it's basically the scientific way to say 'uses up completely.'
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.