dispense

See also: dispensé

English

Etymology

From Middle English, 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.
   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], OCLC 742335644:

     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

   • 1662, John Dryden, To the Lord Chancellor Hyde

     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, London: […] 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 […].

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 11, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323:

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

   • 1779–81, Samuel Johnson, "Richard Savage" in Lives of the Most Eminent English Poet

     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.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book I, canto III, stanza 30:

     One loving howre / For many yeares of sorrow can dispence

   • c. 1386–1390, John Gower, Reinhold Pauli, editor, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, OCLC 827099568:

     His synne was dispensed with golde, wherof 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: jakaa (fi)
• French: émettre (fr), distribuer (fr), partager (fr), dispenser (fr)

• German: ausgeben (de), austeilen (de), 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 apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct

• Finnish: jakaa (fi) (justice); hallita (fi), johtaa (fi) (to administer, direct)

to supply or make up a medicine or prescription

• Dutch: doseren (nl)
• Finnish: antaa (fi), annostella (to supply); määrätä (fi) (to prescribe)
• French: doser (fr), préparer (fr), dispenser (fr)

• German: dosieren (de), ausstellen (de)
• Swedish: skriva ut (sv), förskriva
• Turkish: ilaç hazırlamak (tr)

to give a dispensation to someone; to excuse

• Finnish: vapauttaa (fi)
• German: entschuldigen (de)

to compensate; to make up; to make amends

• Finnish: korvata (fi), hyvittää (fi), palkita (fi) (to compensate)
• German: wiedergutmachen (de)

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 Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} минавам без (minavam bez)
• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} afschaffen (nl)
• French: ^{(please verify)} éliminer (fr), ^{(please verify)} se passer de (fr), ^{(please verify)} se dispenser de
• German: ^{(please verify)} abgeben (de)

• Occitan: ^{(please verify)} se passar de, ^{(please verify)} eliminar (oc)
• Russian: ^{(please verify)} обходиться без impf (obxoditʹsja bez)
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} lösa (sv), ^{(please verify)} frikalla (sv), ^{(please verify)} frita (sv), ^{(please verify)} avvara (sv), ^{(please verify)} vara utan, ^{(please verify)} undvara (sv)
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} 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: […] [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 […]

Translations

cost, expenditure

• German: Kosten (de) f, Ausgabe (de) f

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, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 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 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.