kick upstairs vs depute

kick upstairs and depute both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
kick upstairs	No	No	Yes	No
depute	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, depute is a hypernym of kick upstairs; that is, depute is a word with a broader meaning than kick upstairs:

kick upstairs: give a promotion to or assign to a higher position
depute: give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person)

Other hypernyms of kick upstairs include assign, delegate, designate.

kick upstairs (verb)	depute (verb)
give a promotion to or assign to a higher position	transfer power to someone
	appoint as a substitute
	give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person)