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Dispense vs Dispose - What's the difference?

dispense | dispose |

In obsolete terms the difference between dispense and dispose

is that dispense is the act of dispensing, dispensation while dispose is to regulate; to adjust; to settle; to determine.

As a noun dispense

is cost, expenditure.

dispense

English

Verb

  • To issue, distribute, or put 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.
  • 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.
  • To supply or make up a medicine or prescription.
  • The pharmacist dispensed my tablets.
    An optician can dispense spectacles.
  • To eliminate or do without; used intransitively with with .
  • I wish he would dispense with the pleasantries and get to the point.
  • (obsolete) To give a dispensation to (someone); to excuse.
  • * , II.34:
  • 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.
  • (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

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Cost, expenditure.
  • (obsolete) The act of dispensing, dispensation.
  • * , II.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 [...].

    dispose

    Verb

    (dispos)
  • To eliminate or to get rid of something.
  • :
  • To distribute and put in place.
  • *1600 , (William Shakespeare), , act 4, scene III
  • *:Now, dear soldiers, march away: / And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!
  • *1811 , (Jane Austen), (Sense and Sensibility) , chapter 6
  • *:Marianne’s pianoforte was unpacked and properly disposed of, and Elinor’s drawing were affixed to the walls of their sitting rooms.
  • *1934 , (Rex Stout), edition, ISBN 0553278193, page 47:
  • *:I sat down within three feet of the entrance door, and I had no sooner got disposed than the door opened and a man came in.
  • To deal out; to assign to a use.
  • *(John Evelyn) (1620-1706)
  • *:what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor
  • To incline.
  • : (Used here intransitively in the passive voice)
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:Endure and conquer; Jove will soon dispose / To future good our past and present woes.
  • *(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
  • *:Suspicions dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to jealousy, and wise men to irresolution and melancholy.
  • *
  • *:At twilight in the summeron the floor.
  • (lb) To bargain; to make terms.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:She had disposed with Caesar.
  • (lb) To regulate; to adjust; to settle; to determine.
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:the knightly forms of combat to dispose
  • Synonyms

    * incline * discard

    Antonyms

    * indispose * disincline

    Derived terms

    * disposition * disposal * dispose of