dispose - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Borrowed from French disposer.

dispose (third-person singular simple present disposes, present participle disposing, simple past and past participle disposed)

  1. (intransitive, with of) To eliminate or to get rid of something.
    I dispose of my trash in the garbage can.
  2. To distribute or arrange; to put in place.
    • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
      Now, dear soldiers, march away: / And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!
    • 1811, [Jane Austen], Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
      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, Fer-de-Lance, Bantam, published 1992, →ISBN, 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 […] .
    • 1950 September, “Central London Railway Jubilee”, in Railway Magazine, page 620:
      By disposing the driving power over a number of cars instead of concentrating it in a single locomotive a great advance was made towards a high rate of acceleration.
  3. To deal out; to assign to a use.
    • 1818 (first published), John Evelyn, diary entry for 1634
      what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor
  4. To incline.
    In these uncertain times, I am disposed towards caution.
    (Used here intransitively in the passive voice)
    • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
      Endure and conquer; Jove will soon dispose / To future good our past and present woes.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Suspicion”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
      They [suspicions] dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to jealousy, and wise men to irresolution and melancholy.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
      At twilight in the summer […] the mice come out. They […] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly […] on the floor.
  5. (obsolete) To bargain; to make terms.
  6. (obsolete) To regulate; to adjust; to settle; to determine.

to get rid of something

to distribute and put in place

dispose

  1. (obsolete) The disposal or management of something.
    • 1680, John Bunyan, The Life and Death of Mr Badman:
      By thus doing, he submits himself to God's rod, commits himself to the dispose of his providence; yea, by thus doing, he casteth the lot of his present and future condition into the lap of his creditors, and leaves the whole dispose thereof to the Lord […]
  2. (obsolete) Behaviour; disposition.

dispose

  1. inflection of disposer:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

dispose

  1. third-person singular past historic of disporre