dispense

See also: dispensé

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French dispenser, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin dispensare (“to weigh out, pay out, distribute, regulate, manage, control, dispense”), frequentative of dispendere (“to weigh out”), from dis- (“apart”) + pendere (“to weigh”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪsˈpɛns/

• Audio (GA):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛns
• Hyphenation: dis‧pense

Verb

1. To issue, distribute, or give out.
   • (Can we date this quote by Sir Walter Scott and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     He is delighted to dispense a share of it to all the company.

   • 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber 2005, p.40:

     The smoky spray seemed to trap whatever light there was and to dispense it subtly.

2. To apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct.

   to dispense justice

   • (Can we date this quote by Dryden and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     While you dispense the laws, and guide the state.

3. To supply or make up a medicine or prescription.

   The pharmacist dispensed my tablets.

   An optician can dispense spectacles.

4. (obsolete) To give a dispensation to (someone); to excuse.
   • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
   • (Can we date this quote by Macaulay and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     It was resolved that all members of the House who held commissions, should be dispensed from parliamentary attendance.

   • (Can we date this quote by Johnson and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     He appeared to think himself born to be supported by others, and dispensed from all necessity of providing for himself.

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To compensate; to make up; to make amends.
   • (Can we date this quote by Spenser and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     One loving hour / For many years of sorrow can dispense.

   • (Can we date this quote by Gower and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     His sin was dispensed / With gold, whereof it was compensed.

Derived terms

• dispensary
• dispenser
• dispense with

Translations

to issue, distribute, or give out

• Bulgarian: раздавам (bg) (razdavam), разпределям (bg) (razpredeljam)
• Dutch: uitgeven (nl), uitdelen (nl), verdelen (nl)
• Finnish: antaa (fi), jakaa (fi), tarjota (fi)
• French: émettre (fr), distribuer (fr), partager (fr), dispenser (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: ausgeben (de), austeilen, verteilen (de)
• Maori: tuari
• Swedish: utdela (sv), dela ut (sv), fördela (sv), förmedla (sv), utge (sv), ge ut (sv), utminutera (sv), dosera (sv)
• Turkish: dağıtmak (tr), tevzi etmek (tr), vermek (tr)

to supply or make up a medicine or prescription

• Dutch: doseren (nl)
• French: doser (fr), préparer (fr), dispenser (fr)
• German: dosieren (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Swedish: skriva ut (sv), förskriva
• Turkish: ilaç hazırlamak (tr)

to eliminate or do without

• Bulgarian: минавам без (minavam bez)
• Dutch: afschaffen (nl)
• Finnish: jättää väliin, ohittaa (fi)
• French: éliminer (fr), se passer de (fr), se dispenser de
• German: abgeben (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Occitan: se passar de, eliminar (oc)
• Russian: обходиться без impf (obxoditʹsja bez)
• Swedish: lösa (sv), frikalla (sv), frita (sv), avvara (sv), vara utan, undvara (sv)
• Turkish: bırakmak (tr)

Noun

dispense (countable and uncountable, plural dispenses)

1. (obsolete) Cost, expenditure.
2. (obsolete) The act of dispensing, dispensation.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     […] what euer in this worldly state / Is sweet, and pleasing vnto liuing sense, / Or that may dayntiest fantasie aggrate, / Was poured forth with plentifull dispence […]

Derived terms

• dispensable
• dispensation
• dispensative
• dispensatory

Related terms

• dispend

Further reading

• “dispense”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “dispense”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “dispense”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• despines, piedness

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French

Etymology

Deverbal from dispenser.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

dispense f (plural dispenses)

1. dispensation

Verb

dispense

1. first-person singular present indicative of dispenser
2. third-person singular present indicative of dispenser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of dispenser
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of dispenser
5. second-person singular imperative of dispenser

Further reading

• “dispense”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• pendisse

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Italian

Noun

dispense f

1. plural of dispensa

Verb

dispense

1. third-person singular past historic of dispegnere

Anagrams

• pendessi

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Portuguese

Verb

dispense

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of dispensar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of dispensar
3. first-person singular imperative of dispensar
4. third-person singular imperative of dispensar

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Spanish

Verb

dispense

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of dispensar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of dispensar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of dispensar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of dispensar.