DISPENSE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... our modern art conditions: when, however, people like our men of culture have grown accustomed to it, they imagine that it is a condition of their healthy existence, and would immediately feel unwell if, for any reason, they were compelled to dispense with it for a while. In point of fact, there is but one speedy way of convincing oneself of the vulgarity, weirdness, and confusion of our theatrical institutions, and that is to compare them with those ...

— Thoughts out of Season (Part One) • Friedrich Nietzsche

... the chance traveller, as long as he tarries at Granpere, will insensibly and perhaps unconsciously become an advocate of the former doctrine; he will be struck by the comfort which he sees around him, and for a while will dispense with wealth, luxury, scholarships, and fashion. Whether the inhabitants of these hills and valleys will advance to farther progress now that they are again to become German, is another question, which the writer will not attempt to ...

— The Golden Lion of Granpere • Anthony Trollope

... because the poet offers us, as a proof of that "reverential care," the visible alteration of nature at the scene of suffering—an alteration we are obliged to dispense with every day we pass in the woods. We are tempted to ask whether Wordsworth himself believed in a sympathy he asks us—upon such grounds!—to believe in? Did he think his faith to be worthy of no more than a fictitious sign or a ...

— Flower of the Mind • Alice Meynell

... my friend's address was liberty. There is no British heart which does not beat higher at the sound of that word. But while I listened to his impassioned plea, I could not help wondering why he did not propose to dispense to us in even larger and more liberal measure the supreme and precious gift of freedom. True, he has done much to remove the barriers that separated nation from nation, and man from man. But how much remains to be accomplished before we can be truly said to have brought ...

— A Modern Symposium • G. Lowes Dickinson

... answered, "I never knew anything of her father, and indeed, I reckon no one does"—then after a moment she added, "Almost every family has some objectionable relative, with which they could willingly dispense." ...

— 'Lena Rivers • Mary J. Holmes

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