dispose Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb give, sell, or transfer to another
    • She disposed of her parents' possessions
  2. verb throw or cast away
    cast aside; throw away; fling; toss; cast away; chuck out; throw out; cast out; put away; discard; toss out; toss away.
    • Put away your worries
  3. verb make receptive or willing towards an action or attitude or belief
    incline.
    • Their language inclines us to believe them
  4. verb place or put in a particular order
    • the dots are unevenly disposed
  5. verb make fit or prepared
    qualify.
    • Your education qualifies you for this job

WordNet

Dis*pose" transitive verb
Etymology
F. disposer; pref. dis- + poser to place. See Pose.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Disposed ; present participle & verbal noun Disposing
Definitions
  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.
    Syn. -- To set; arrange; order; distribute; adjust; regulate; adapt; fit; incline; bestow; give.
Dis*pose" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To bargain; to make terms. Obs.
    She had disposed with Cæsar. Shak.
Dis*pose" noun
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913