Dictionary Information: Definition Dispose - Description Meaning Thesaurus

Dispose (Dis*pose") (?), v. t.
[imp. & p. p. Disposed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Disposing.]
[F. disposer; pref. dis- + poser to place. See Pose.]

1. To distribute and put in place; to arrange; to set in order; as, to dispose the ships in the form of a crescent. "Who hath disposed the whole world?" Job xxxiv. 13. "All ranged in order and disposed with grace." Pope. "The rest themselves in troops did else dispose." Spenser.
2. To regulate; to adjust; to settle; to determine. "The knightly forms of combat to dispose." Dryden.
3. To deal out; to assign to a use; to bestow for an object or purpose; to apply; to employ; to dispose of. "Importuned him that what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor." Evelyn.
4. To give a tendency or inclination to; to adapt; to cause to turn; especially, to incline the mind of; to give a bent or propension to; to incline; to make inclined; -- usually followed by to, sometimes by for before the indirect object. "Endure and conquer; Jove will soon dispose To future good our past and present woes." Dryden. "Suspicions dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to jealousy, and wise men to irresolution and melancholy." Bacon.

-- To dispose of. (a) To determine the fate of; to exercise the power of control over; to fix the condition, application, employment, etc. of; to direct or assign for a use. "Freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons." Locke. (b) To exercise finally one's power of control over; to pass over into the control of some one else, as by selling; to alienate; to part with; to relinquish; to get rid of; as, to dispose of a house; to dispose of one's time. "More water . . . than can be disposed of." T. Burnet. "I have disposed of her to a man of business." Tatler. "A rural judge disposed of beauty's prize." Waller.

Synonyms -- To set; arrange; order; distribute; adjust; regulate; adapt; fit; incline; bestow; give.

Dispose (Dis*pose") (?), v. i.

To bargain; to make terms. [Obs.] "She had disposed with Cæsar." Shak.

Dispose (Dis*pose"), n.

1. Disposal; ordering; management; power or right of control. [Obs.] "But such is the dispose of the sole Disposer of empires." Speed.
2. Cast of mind; disposition; inclination; behavior; demeanor. [Obs.] "He hath a person, and a smooth dispose To be suspected." Shak.