English Explanatory Dictionary

dispense

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To issue, distribute, or give out.
  2. To apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct.
  3. To supply or make up a medicine or prescription.
  4. To give a dispensation to (someone); to excuse.
  5. To compensate; to make up; to make amends.
noun
  1. Cost, expenditure.
  2. The act of dispensing, dispensation.

Pronunciation

/dɪˈspɛns/ en-us-dispense.ogg /dɪˈspens/

Word forms

dispense dispenses dispensing dispensed dispence

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 words

dispend

Derived words

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