dispense

See also: dispensé

English

Etymology

From Old French dispenser, from 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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈpɛns/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛns
• Hyphenation: dis‧pense

Verb

dispense (third-person singular simple present dispenses, present participle dispensing, simple past and past participle dispensed)

1. To issue, distribute, or give out.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     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

   • Dryden

     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.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 34, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     After his victories, he often gave them the reines to all licenciousnesse, for a while dispencing them from all rules of military discipline […].

   • Macaulay

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

   • Johnson

     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.
   • Spenser

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

   • Gower

     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)

• 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)

• 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)

• 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, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book II, canto XII:

     […] 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, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• dispense in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• dispense at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• despines, piedness

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French

Etymology

Deverbal of 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 le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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.