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dispense

verb
/dɪˈspɛns/CA/dɪˈspens/

Etymology

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”).

  1. derived from dispenso
  2. derived from dispenser

Definitions

  1. To issue, distribute, or give out.

    • He is delighted to dispense a share of it to all the company.
    • The smoky spray seemed to trap whatever light there was and to dispense it subtly.

  2. To apply, as laws to particular cases

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

    • to dispense justice
    • 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. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. To give a dispensation to (someone)

      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[…].
      • 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.

    2. To compensate

      To compensate; to make up; to make amends.

      • One loving howre / For many yeares of sorrow can dispence
      • His synne was dispensed with golde, wherof it was compensed

    3. Cost, expenditure.

    4. 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 […]

The neighborhood

Derived

dispensability, dispensary, dispensement, dispenser, dispense with, dispensome, misdispense, nanodispense, predispensed, redispense, undispensed, dispensable, dispensation, dispensative, dispensatory

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at dispense. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01dispense02medicine03healing04problems05problem06dealt07deal08distribute

A definitional loop anchored at dispense. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at dispense

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA