dictating

Verb

dictate (third-person singular simple present dictates, present participle dictating, simple past and past participle dictated)

1. To order, command, control.
   • Etiquette dictates that wedding invitations should be acknowledged in writing.
2. To speak in order for someone to write down the words.
   • She is dictating a letter to a stenographer.
3. To determine or decisively affect.
   • He had offered, and been refused! There was that in her own nature, which sympathised with the pride, for such she held to be the motive, dictating the refusal.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Return to Courtenaye Hall”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 151

   Synonyms:

   We issue replacements as necessity dictates.

See all 4 meanings of dictate