Word.ws English Dictionary

dispose

UK/dɪˈspəʊz//dɪsˈpoʊz/

dispose verb: to eliminate or to get rid of something.

Verb

dispose (third-person singular simple present disposes, present participle disposing, simple past and past participle disposed)

  1. (intransitive, with-of) To eliminate or to get rid of something.
    • I dispose of my trash in the garbage can.
  2. To distribute or arrange; to put in place.
    • Now, dear soldiers, march away: / And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • Marianne’s pianoforte was unpacked and properly disposed of, and Elinor’s drawing were affixed to the walls of their sitting rooms.1811, [Jane Austen], Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC
  3. To deal out; to assign to a use.
    • what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor1818 (first published), John Evelyn, diary entry for 1634
  4. To incline.
    • In these uncertain times, I am disposed towards caution.
    • Endure and conquer; Jove will soon dispose / To future good our past and present woes.1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  5. (obsolete) To bargain; to make terms.
    • She had disposed with Caesar.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  6. (obsolete) To regulate; to adjust; to settle; to determine.
    • the knightly forms of combat to dispose1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

Noun

dispose

  1. (obsolete) The disposal or management of something.
    • By thus doing, he submits himself to God's rod, commits himself to the dispose of his providence; yea, by thus doing, he casteth the lot of his present and future condition into the lap of his creditors, and leaves the whole dispose thereof to the Lord […]1680, John Bunyan, The Life and Death of Mr Badman
  2. (obsolete) Behaviour; disposition.

dispose meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

dispose in Tamil

அப்புறப்படுத்து

dispose in Urdu

آراستہ کرنا, بانٹنا, بند و بست کرنا, انتظام کرنا, نظم دینا, نکالنا

dispose in Bengali

ফেলে দেওয়া, বর্জন করা, মুক্তি পাওয়া

dispose in Telugu

to get rid of something
తీసివేయు tīsivēyu
More languagesFewer languages
dispose in Malayalam
തയ്യാറാവുക, പ്രവണത കാട്ടുക, ക്രമപ്പെടുത്തുക
dispose in Kannada
ಸಾವಗಿಸು, ಹೂಡು, ಕಂಡಿಸು, ತೀರ‍್ಮಾನಿಸು

Examples of dispose in a sentence

  • I sat down within three feet of the entrance door, and I had no sooner got disposed than the door opened and a man came in[…].1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, Bantam, published 1992, →ISBN, page 47:
  • They [suspicions] dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to jealousy, and wise men to irresolution and melancholy.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Suspicion”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
  • Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly[…]on the floor.1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

All 40 example sentences with dispose

Synonyms of dispose

Antonyms

Forms of dispose

third-person singular presentdisposes
present participledisposing
past participledisposed
pastdisposed

Past tense of dispose: disposed

Origin of dispose

Borrowed from French disposer.

Words formed from dispose

Words that rhyme with dispose

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dispose

What does dispose mean?
Dispose means to eliminate or to get rid of something.
What is dispose in Tamil?
Dispose in Tamil is அப்புறப்படுத்து. See Dispose meaning in Tamil.
How do you use dispose in a sentence?
I sat down within three feet of the entrance door, and I had no sooner got disposed than the door opened and a man came in[…].
What part of speech is dispose?
Dispose can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce dispose?
Dispose is pronounced /dɪsˈpoʊz/ (US).
What is the past tense of dispose?
The past tense of dispose is disposed.

Words near dispose in the dictionary

  1. disposably
  2. disposal
  3. disposall
  4. disposalls
  5. disposals
  6. dispose
  7. dispose of
  8. disposed
  9. disposed of
  10. disposedly
  11. disposedness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dispose (page history and authors); dispose (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dispose (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dispose (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dispose (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dispose (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-dispose.ogg.

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