dispenser

[dih-spen-ser]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR dispenser ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person or thing that dispenses.

a container, package, device, or vending machine for holding and dispensing something in small amounts, as facial tissue, paper cups, or candy.

Origin of dispenser

Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at dispense, -er¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for dispenser

wholesaler, marketer, merchant, vendor, trader, speculator, banker, trafficker, retailer, druggist, dispenser, bursar, businessperson, tradesman, changer, chandler, merchandiser, gallipot

Examples from the Web for dispenser

Historical Examples of dispenser

Such a contingency as this had never been foreseen by that dispenser of proverbs.
The Shadow of a Crime
Hall Caine
You are the dispenser of the King's high justice in this province.
Scaramouche
Rafael Sabatini
I called to the Bengali dispenser, and hastened away from the room.
The Shadow-Line
Joseph Conrad
He seems to have been not only the dispenser of the money, but the captain of the men.
Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1
J. Endell Tyler
“Apply to the dispenser of the hospital,” continued his wife.
Japhet in Search of a Father
Frederick Marryat

British Dictionary definitions for dispenser

dispenser

noun

a device, such as a vending machine, that automatically dispenses a single item or a measured quantity

a person or thing that dispenses

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for dispenser

c.1400, "one who administers" (a household, etc.), c.1200 in surnames, from Anglo-French dispensour, Old French despenseor, from Latin dispensatorem, agent noun from dispensare (see dispense). Meaning "a container that dispenses in fixed measure" is from 1918.