Dispense
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Cost, expenditure. countable, obsolete, uncountable
- 2 The act of dispensing, dispensation. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"[…] 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 […]"
- 1 To issue, distribute, or give out.
"He is delighted to dispense a share of it to all the company."
- 2 give or apply (medications) wordnet
- 3 To apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct.
"to dispense justice"
- 4 administer or bestow, as in small portions wordnet
- 5 To supply or make up a medicine or prescription.
"The pharmacist dispensed my tablets."
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- 6 grant a dispensation; grant an exemption wordnet
- 7 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[…]."
- 8 To compensate; to make up; to make amends. intransitive, obsolete
"One loving howre / For many yeares of sorrow can dispence"
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"It seems unlikely that any society could completely dispense with myths."
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”).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.