Word.ws English Dictionary

dispensing

dispensing is the present participle and gerund 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

Noun

dispensing (plural dispensings)

  1. The act by which something is dispensed or served out.
    • One tank furnishes enough oxygen for 30 dispensings.1951 October 27, Billboard, page 99

Forms of dispensing

pluraldispensings

Words formed from dispensing

Phrases with dispensing

Questions about dispensing

What does dispensing mean?
Dispensing means the act by which something is dispensed or served out.
What is dispensing the present participle and gerund of?
Dispensing is the present participle and gerund of dispense.
What part of speech is dispensing?
Dispensing is a noun.
What is the plural of dispensing?
The plural of dispensing is dispensings.

Words near dispensing in the dictionary

  1. dispenses with
  2. dispensest
  3. dispenseth
  4. dispensibility
  5. dispensible
  6. dispensing
  7. dispensing with
  8. dispensings
  9. dispensome
  10. dispensomes
  11. dispenst

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dispensing (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: “dispensing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dispensing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.