Dis`po*si"tion (?), n.
[F. disposition,
dispositio, fr. disponere to dispose; dis- +
ponere to place. See Position, and cf. Dispone.]
1. The act
of disposing, arranging, ordering, regulating, or
transferring; application; disposal; as, the disposition of a man's property by
will.
Who have received the law by the disposition of angels.
Acts vii. 53.
The disposition of the work, to put all things in a beautiful order and harmony, that the whole may be
of a piece.
Dryden.
2. The state or the
manner of being disposed or arranged; distribution;
arrangement; order; as, the disposition of the trees in an
orchard; the disposition of the several parts of an edifice.
3. Tendency to any action or
state resulting from natural constitution;
nature; quality; as, a disposition in plants to grow in a direction upward; a disposition in bodies to putrefaction.
4. Conscious inclination; propension or propensity.
How stands your disposition to be married?
Shak. 5. Natural or prevailing spirit, or temperament of mind, especially as shown in intercourse with one's fellow-men; temper of mind. "A man of turbulent disposition." Hallam. "He is of a very melancholy disposition." Shak.
His disposition led him to do things
agreeable to his quality and condition wherein God had placed him.
Strype. 6. Mood;
humor.
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put
an antic disposition on.
Shak. Syn. -- Disposal; adjustment; regulation; arrangement; distribution; order; method; adaptation; inclination; propensity; bestowment; alienation; character;
temper; mood. -- Disposition, Character, Temper. Disposition is the natural humor of a person, the predominating quality of his character, the constitutional habit of his
mind. Character is this disposition influenced by motive, training, and will. Temper is a
quality of the fiber of
character, and is displayed chiefly when the emotions, especially the passions, are aroused.
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