Dis*pose" , n.
1. Disposal; ordering; management; power or right of control. [Obs.]
But such is the dispose of the sole Disposer of
empires.
Speed.
2. Cast of mind; disposition; inclination; behavior;
demeanor. [Obs.]
He hath a person, and a
smooth dispose
To be suspected.
Shak.
Dis*pose" (?), v. i. To bargain; to make terms. [Obs.]
She had disposed with Cæsar.
Shak.
Dis*pose" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Disposed (?); p. pr.
& vb. n. Disposing.]
[F. disposer; pref. dis- + poser to place. See
Pose.] 1. To distribute and put in place; to arrange; to set in order;
as, to dispose the ships in the form of a crescent.
Who hath disposed the whole world?
Job xxxiv. 13. All ranged in order and disposed with grace.
Pope. The rest themselves in troops did else dispose.
Spenser.
2. To regulate; to adjust; to settle; to determine.
The knightly forms of combat to
dispose.
Dryden.
3. To deal out; to assign to a use; to bestow for an
object or purpose; to apply; to employ; to dispose of.
Importuned him that what he
designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor.
Evelyn. 4. To give a tendency or inclination to; to adapt; to cause to turn; especially, to incline the mind of; to give a bent or propension to; to incline; to make inclined; -- usually followed by
to, sometimes by for before the indirect object.
Endure and conquer; Jove will soon dispose
To future good our past and
present woes.
Dryden.
Suspicions dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to jealousy, and wise men
to irresolution and melancholy.
Bacon. To dispose of. (a) To determine the fate of; to exercise the power of control over; to fix the condition, application, employment, etc. of; to direct or
assign for a use.
Freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons.
Locke. (b) To exercise finally one's power of control over; to pass
over into the control of some one else, as by
selling; to alienate; to part with;
to relinquish; to get rid of; as, to dispose of a house; to
dispose of one's time.
More water . . . than can be
disposed of.
T. Burnet. I have disposed of her to a man of business.
Tatler.
A rural judge disposed of beauty's
prize.
Waller. Syn. --
To set; arrange; order; distribute; adjust; regulate; adapt; fit; incline; bestow; give.
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