English [edit]
Wikipedia
Alternative forms [edit]
Etymology [edit]
The etymology of the word is uncertain. It is connected to the French dépêcher and dépêche which are in meaning equivalents to this word. The French words are made up of the prefix dés- (Lat. dis-) and the root of empêcher (Lat. impedicare, composed from prefix in- and pedica) translated as 'to refrain', 'to stop'. The French word came into English as "depeach", which was in use from the 15th century until "despatch" was introduced. This word is direct from the Italian dispacciare, or Spanish despachar, which must be derived from the Lat. root appearing in pactus (the perfect passive infinitive of the verb pangere) meaning fixed, fastened. The New English Dictionary finds the earliest instance of dispatch letter to Henry VIII. from Bishop Tunstall, commissioner to Spain in 1516–1517.
Pronunciation [edit]
dispatch (third-person singular simple present dispatches, present participle dispatching, simple past and past participle dispatched)
- To send a shipment with promptness.
- To send an important official message sent by a diplomat or military officer with promptness.
- To send a journalist to a place in order to report
- 2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, New York Times:
- Scores of foreign journalists have been dispatched to Seoul to report on the growing tensions between the two Koreas and the possibility of war.
- To hurry.
- (obsolete) To deprive.
- To destroy quickly and efficiently.
- (computing) To pass on for further processing, especially via a dispatch table (often with to).
Synonyms [edit]
Derived terms [edit]
Hyponyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
To destroy quickly and efficiently
dispatch (plural dispatches)
- A message sent quickly, as a shipment, a prompt settlement of a business, or an important official message sent by a diplomat, or military officer.
- The act of getting rid of something quickly.
- 2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, The Economist, volume 405, number 8813, page 3 (Technology Quarterly):
- A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.
- A mission by an emergency response service, typically attend to an emergency in the field.
- (obsolete) A dismissal.
Translations [edit]
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
Derived terms [edit]
