dispose

From Old French disposer.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈpoʊz/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈspəʊz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊz

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

1. (intransitive, used 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.
   • 1600, William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 4, scene III

     Now, dear soldiers, march away: / And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!

   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, chapter 6

     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, 1992 Bantam edition, →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 […] .

3. To deal out; to assign to a use.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Evelyn

     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)

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     Endure and conquer; Jove will soon dispose / To future good our past and present woes.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

     Suspicions dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to jealousy, and wise men to irresolution and melancholy.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:

     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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     She had disposed with Caesar.

6. (obsolete) To regulate; to adjust; to settle; to determine.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     the knightly forms of combat to dispose

• incline
• discard

• indispose
• disincline

• disposition
• disposal
• dispose of

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. first-person singular present indicative of disposer
2. third-person singular present indicative of disposer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of disposer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of disposer
5. second-person singular imperative of disposer

dispose

1. third-person singular past historic of disporre

• dispeso