dispense
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dispense
- /dɪˈspɛns/ Canada, US, UK
- /dɪˈspens/ Australia
Rhymes with -ɛns
Where it comes from
From Middle English, from Old French dispenser, from Latin dispēnsāre (“to weigh out, pay out, distribute, regulate, manage, control, dispense”), frequentative of dispendere (“to weigh out”), from dis- (“apart”) + pendere (“to weigh”).
verb dispenses · dispensing · dispensed · dispence
- To issue, distribute, or give out. He is delighted to dispense a share of it to all the company.
- To apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct. to dispense justice
- To supply or make up a medicine or prescription. The pharmacist dispensed my tablets.
- To give a dispensation to (someone); to excuse. After his victories, he often gave them the reines to all licenciousnesse, for a while dispencing them from all rules of military discipline[…].
- To compensate; to make up; to make amends. One loving howre / For many yeares of sorrow can dispence
noun dispenses · dispence
- Cost, expenditure.
- The act of dispensing, dispensation. […] 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 […]
