dispense
pronunciation
How to pronounce dispense in British English:
UK [dɪˈspens]
How to pronounce dispense in American English:
US [dɪˈspens]
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- Verb:
- administer or bestow, as in small portions
- grant a dispensation; grant an exemption
- give or apply (medications)
Word Origin
- dispense
- dispense: [14] Dispense comes ultimately from Latin dispendere ‘weigh out’ (partial source of English spend). This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dis- ‘away’ and pendere ‘weigh’, a relative of pendēre ‘hang’, from which English gets pendulum, pendant, and penthouse. It had a derivative, dispensāre, denoting repeated action: hence ‘pay out, distribute’, senses which passed into English via Old French dispenser. In medieval Latin dispensāre also came to mean ‘administer justice’, and hence ‘exempt, condone’; this was the source of the English usage dispense with ‘do without’.=> pendulum, pendant, penthouse, spend
- dispense (v.)
- early 14c., from Old French dispenser "give out" (13c.), from Latin dispensare "disburse, administer, distribute (by weight)," frequentative of dispendere "pay out," from dis- "out" (see dis-) + pendere "to pay, weigh" (see pendant). In Medieval Latin, dispendere was used in the ecclesiastical sense of "grant license to do what is forbidden or omit what is required" (a power of popes, bishops, etc.), and thus acquired a sense of "grant remission from punishment or exemption from law," hence "to do away with" (1570s), "do without" (c. 1600). Older sense is preserved in dispensary. Related: Dispensed; dispensing.
Example
- 1. But as such diseases often plague the same places , it is possible to dispense several drugs together , saving money .
- 2. Her failure there , she says , was that she was unable to dispense justice equally .
- 3. If rich do-gooders find your objectives attractive , you might take the time to develop relationships with the foundations that dispense their philanthropy .
- 4. Once computers at the new pharmacy electronically receive medication orders from ucsf physicians and pharmacists , the robotics pick , package , and dispense individual doses of pills .
- 5. The first machine to dispense coins as prizes was the three-reeled card bell built by charles fey in 1898 . Slot machines thrived in san francisco .