DISPENSE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Dispense

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/dɪspˈɛns/ Listen

verb

Dispense v. t. (past & past part. dispensed; pres. part. dispensing)

1.

To deal out in portions; to distribute; to give; as, the steward dispenses provisions according directions; Nature dispenses her bounties; to dispense medicines. "He is delighted to dispense a share of it to all the company."

2.

To apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct. "While you dispense the laws, and guide the state."

3.

To pay for; to atone for. (Obs.) "His sin was dispensed With gold, whereof it was compensed."

4.

To exempt; to excuse; to absolve; with from. "It was resolved that all members of the House who held commissions, should be dispensed from parliamentary attendance." "He appeared to think himself born to be supported by others, and dispensed from all necessity of providing for himself."

Dispense v. i.

1.

To compensate; to make up; to make amends. (Obs.) "One loving hour For many years of sorrow can dispense."

2.

To give dispensation. "He (the pope) can also dispense in all matters of ecclesiastical law."

To dispense with.

(a)

To permit the neglect or omission of, as a form, a ceremony, an oath; to suspend the operation of, as a law; to give up, release, or do without, as services, attention, etc.; to forego; to part with.

(b)

To allow by dispensation; to excuse; to exempt; to grant dispensation to or for. (Obs.) "Conniving and dispensing with open and common adultery."

(c)

To break or go back from, as one's word. (Obs.)

noun

Dispense n. Dispensation; exemption. (Obs.)

Dispense n. Expense; profusion; outlay. (Obs.) "It was a vault built for great dispense."

See images of 'Dispense'

Etymology of 'Dispense'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dispense" Quotes from Famous Books

... religion meant just two things—giving up everything that one liked, and doing everything that one disliked. She did not realise that what it really does mean is a change in the liking. But at present she was ready to accept Christ's salvation from punishment, if only she might dispense with the good works which God had prepared for ...

— Clare Avery - A Story of the Spanish Armada • Emily Sarah Holt

... ended by attributing all their past ill-luck to his wife. From the time that he fancied he had been conducting matters alone everything seemed to him to have gone as he desired. He had decided, therefore, to dispense altogether with his consort's counsels, and to confide nothing to her, in spite of his ...

— The Fortune of the Rougons • Emile Zola

... that the King had grown tired of the Whig statesmen, and had long been looking out for an opportunity to get rid of them on easy terms. Perhaps he did not quite like the idea of telling a man of Lord Grey's stately demeanor that he wished to dispense with his services and saw in Lord Melbourne a minister who could be approached on any subject without much sensation of awe. However that may be, the King soon found what seemed to him a satisfactory opportunity for ridding himself of the presence of his Whig advisers. Lord Althorp was suddenly ...

— A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume IV (of 4) • Justin McCarthy and Justin Huntly McCarthy

... occupied by Cosette, it seemed to her as though it were taken from her own, and that that little child diminished the air which her daughters breathed. This woman, like many women of her sort, had a load of caresses and a burden of blows and injuries to dispense each day. If she had not had Cosette, it is certain that her daughters, idolized as they were, would have received the whole of it; but the stranger did them the service to divert the blows to herself. ...

— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... them harvests green, and streams with honey run; Unbroken droop the laden boughs, with heavy fruitage bent, Of incense and of odours strange the air is redolent: And neither sun, nor moon, nor stars dispense their changeful light, But the Lamb's eternal glory makes the happy ...

— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold

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