Word.ws English Dictionary

dispensed

dispensed is the simple past and past participle of dispense.

Meaning of dispense

Verb

dispense (third-person singular simple present dispenses, present participle dispensing, simple past and past participle dispensed)

  1. To issue, distribute, or give out.
    • He is delighted to dispense a share of it to all the company.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown...
  2. To apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct.
    • to dispense justice
  3. To supply or make up a medicine or prescription.
    • The pharmacist dispensed my tablets.
  4. (particularly in canon law) To give a dispensation to (someone); to excuse.
    • After his victories, he often gave them the reines to all licenciousnesse, for a while dispencing them from all rules of military discipline[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 34, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
  5. (intransitive, obsolete) To compensate; to make up; to make amends.
    • One loving howre / For many yeares of sorrow can dispence1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30

See all 7 meanings of dispense

Words formed from dispensed

Phrases with dispensed

Questions about dispensed

What is dispensed the simple past and past participle of?
Dispensed is the simple past and past participle of dispense.

Words near dispensed in the dictionary

  1. dispensatress
  2. dispensatresses
  3. dispensatrix
  4. dispense
  5. dispense with
  6. dispensed
  7. dispensed with
  8. dispensement
  9. dispensements
  10. dispenser
  11. dispensers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dispensed (page history and authors); dispense (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “dispensed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dispensed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.