dispense with
Idioms-
Manage without, forgo, as in We can dispense with the extra help . Shakespeare had this idiom in Timon of Athens (3:2): “Men must learn now with pity to dispense.” [c. 1600]
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Get rid of, do away with, as in The European Union is trying to dispense with tariff barriers . [Late 1500s]
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Exempt one from a law, promise, or obligation, as in He asked the court to dispense with swearing on the Bible . This usage originally applied to religious obligations (to which the Pope granted dispensation ). [Early 1500s]
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.
“I could dispense with most of them. . . . Perhaps that’s my failing, but I console myself that there are worse failings.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
As the United States Supreme Court explained in 1942, the Sixth Amendment right to the assistance of counsel implicitly embodies a “correlative right to dispense with a lawyer’s help.”
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
He says it’s time to dispense with cocktail-party niceties about AI.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
Customers are increasingly being lured by brands like TimberTech, which dispense with wood altogether in favor of polyvinyl chloride patterned to resemble mahogany, teak, or hickory.
From Barron's ● Nov. 7, 2025
Other pieces may even dispense with the idea that music has to consist of notes; compositions may be collections of sounds and silences.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
