dispense
Americanverb (used with object)
-
dispenses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dispensed,
past participle, past
-
dispensing
present participle
-
to deal out; distribute.
to dispense wisdom.
-
to administer.
to dispense the law without bias.
-
Pharmacology. to make up and distribute (medicine), especially on prescription.
-
Roman Catholic Church. to grant dispensation.
verb (used without object)
-
dispenses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dispensed,
past participle, past
-
dispensing
present participle
noun
verb phrase
verb
-
(tr) to give out or issue in portions
-
(tr) to prepare and distribute (medicine), esp on prescription
-
(tr) to administer (the law, etc)
-
to do away (with) or manage (without)
-
to grant a dispensation to (someone) from (some obligation of church law)
-
to exempt or excuse from a rule or obligation
Usage
Dispense with is sometimes wrongly used where dispose of is meant: this task can be disposed of (not dispensed with ) quickly and easily
Synonym Usage
See distribute.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dispensesimple
-
dispensessimple
-
have dispensedperfect
-
has dispensedperfect
-
am dispensingprogressive
-
are dispensingprogressive
-
is dispensingprogressive
-
have been dispensingperfect progressive
-
has been dispensingperfect progressive
Past
-
dispensedsimple
-
had dispensedperfect
-
was dispensingprogressive
-
were dispensingprogressive
-
had been dispensingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dispense
1275–1325; Middle English dispensen < Medieval Latin dispēnsāre to pardon, exempt, Latin: to pay out, distribute, equivalent to dis- dis- 1 + pēnsāre, frequentative of pendere to weigh
Explanation
To dispense means to give out or distribute something. A school nurse can dispense students' medication and we all can dispense advice. The word dispense comes from the Old French word dispenser, meaning "give out." You can dispense anything from hand sanitizer to dating advice. When dispense is paired with with it means "get rid of it" or "skip." If you dispense with traditional Thanksgiving dishes, you might instead celebrate with pizza, pancakes, tacos — anything but turkey and all the fixings.
Vocabulary lists containing dispense
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That allowed him to dispense of any concerns that he was wearing on someone’s patience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
While two calm days have been most welcome after what we have witnessed in recent months, we do not want England to dispense with everything we saw under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes' Bazball regime.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
One of the FDA’s concerns is that the agency doesn’t have any information about the containers that would be used by compounding pharmacies to dispense the medication.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
In February, Monsanto proposed another multi-billion dollar class settlement to dispense with claims that Roundup causes cancer.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
Because of Chapel Hill High School’s strict Zero Tolerance Policy toward drugs, the school nurse had to dispense all medications for Chapel Hill High School students.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
This streamlined version—co-written with Leonard Mlodinow, a physicist and popular-science author—retains explanations of vital topics, such as the curvature of spacetime and Einstein’s theory of relativity, but dispenses with the drier sections.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
The NHS pays pharmacies a fixed price for each medicine it dispenses.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026
She also conducts research for patients—from cancer treatment to skin care—and dispenses advice that other doctors might not; a patient recently texted to ask if the foundation makeup she was considering was “clean beauty.”
From Barron's ● Nov. 12, 2025
Desperation and fear bleed through everything he dispenses.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2025
“Your friend dispenses good advice,” the old beggar chimed in.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
Saum Poorsaleh, San Diego police public information officer, said his department had issued more than 50 citations at Sunset Cliffs and dispensed about 350 warnings, written and oral, since mid-June.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh dispensed with subtlety altogether.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
Authorities said Mareik and her co-conspirators billed California’s Medi-Cal program tens of millions of dollars a month for medically unnecessary, high-reimbursement generic drugs that were dispensed outside the program’s contracted pharmacy network.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Zhao Xuan, 28, who tells the BBC that her parents dispensed so much "gourd soup literature" that she has muted her family group chat.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
“I have, however, dispensed with the cookie that once came with it.”
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
Matthews said until the Blythe prison site’s infrastructure is separated from neighboring Ironwood State Prison and its bond obligations are resolved, the property can’t move through the state’s process for dispensing with surplus property.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
At a centre called "Sniffspace", dogs test human samples on platforms equipped with automatic feeders dispensing dog treats.
From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026
By now, Russell was in the lead, having wasted little time dispensing with Gasly.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
It is all part of Wertheim’s goal of dispensing his vast fortune, which he puts at an estimated $5 billion to $7 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
She was awful at dispensing romantic advice, being so inexperienced in the field herself.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
