dispensation

noun dispensations

1. countable, uncountable The act of dispensing or dealing out; distribution a fair dispensation of money
2. countable, uncountable The distribution of good and evil by God to man. Shall we not accompt theſe a part of Gods dispenſation, and therefore good in the Fountaine, from whence they flowed
3. countable, uncountable That which is dispensed, dealt out, or given; that which is bestowed on someone Bowman certainly lost no time in travelling south to obtain his dispensation once he had published the sermon
4. countable, uncountable A system of principles, promises, and rules ordained and administered; scheme; economy the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian dispensations
5. countable, uncountable The relaxation of a law in a particular case; permission to do something forbidden, or to omit doing something enjoined; exemption. Special grounds for giving dispensation to see classified documents include research purposes.
6. countable, uncountable In the Roman Catholic Church, an exemption from some ecclesiastical law, or from an obligation to God which a person has incurred of his own free will (oaths, vows, etc.). [H]e had a dispensation for conforming in outward observances to the Protestant faith.