disposition Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun your usual mood
    temperament.
    • he has a happy disposition
  2. noun the act or means of getting rid of something
    disposal.
  3. noun an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others
    tendency; inclination.
    • he had an inclination to give up too easily
    • a tendency to be too strict
  4. noun a natural or acquired habit or characteristic tendency in a person or thing
    • a swelling with a disposition to rupture

WordNet

Dis`po*si"tion noun
Etymology
F. disposition, dispositio, fr. disponere to dispose; dis- + ponere to place. See Position, and cf. Dispone.
Definitions
  1. The act of disposing, arranging, ordering, regulating, or transferring; application; disposal; as, the disposition of a man's property by will.
    Who have received the law by the disposition of angels. Acts vii. 53.
    The disposition of the work, to put all things in a beautiful order and harmony, that the whole may be of a piece. Dryden.
  2. The state or the manner of being disposed or arranged; distribution; arrangement; order; as, the disposition of the trees in an orchard; the disposition of the several parts of an edifice.
  3. Tendency to any action or state resulting from natural constitution; nature; quality; as, a disposition in plants to grow in a direction upward; a disposition in bodies to putrefaction.
  4. Conscious inclination; propension or propensity.
    How stands your disposition to be married? Shak.
  5. Natural or prevailing spirit, or temperament of mind, especially as shown in intercourse with one's fellow-men; temper of mind. "A man of turbulent disposition." Hallam. "He is of a very melancholy disposition." Shak.
    His disposition led him to do things agreeable to his quality and condition wherein God had placed him. Strype.
  6. Mood; humor.
    As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on. Shak.
    Syn. -- Disposal; adjustment; regulation; arrangement; distribution; order; method; adaptation; inclination; propensity; bestowment; alienation; character; temper; mood. -- Disposition, Character, Temper. Disposition is the natural humor of a person, the predominating quality of his character, the constitutional habit of his mind. Character is this disposition influenced by motive, training, and will. Temper is a quality of the fiber of character, and is displayed chiefly when the emotions, especially the passions, are aroused.

Webster 1913