Library / English Dictionary

DISPOSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make fit or prepared

Example:

Your education qualifies you for this job

Synonyms:

dispose; qualify

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "dispose" is one way to...):

groom; prepare; train (educate for a future role or function)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dispose"):

habilitate (qualify for teaching at a university in Europe)

capacitate (make capable)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make receptive or willing towards an action or attitude or belief

Example:

Their language inclines us to believe them

Synonyms:

dispose; incline

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "dispose" is one way to...):

determine; influence; mold; regulate; shape (shape or influence; give direction to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dispose"):

predispose (make susceptible)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Antonym:

indispose (make unwilling)

Derivation:

disposition (an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Place or put in a particular order

Example:

the dots are unevenly disposed

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "dispose" is one way to...):

lay; place; pose; position; put; set (put into a certain place or abstract location)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Throw or cast away

Example:

Put away your worries

Synonyms:

cast aside; cast away; cast out; chuck out; discard; dispose; fling; put away; throw away; throw out; toss; toss away; toss out

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "dispose" is one way to...):

get rid of; remove (dispose of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dispose"):

unlearn (discard something previously learnt, like an old habit)

deep-six; give it the deep six (toss out; get rid of)

jettison (throw away, of something encumbering)

junk; scrap; trash (dispose of (something useless or old))

waste (get rid of)

dump (throw away as refuse)

retire (dispose of (something no longer useful or needed))

abandon (forsake, leave behind)

liquidize; sell out; sell up (sell or get rid of all one's merchandise)

de-access (dispose of by selling)

close out (terminate by selling off or disposing of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

disposal; disposition (the act or means of getting rid of something)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Give, sell, or transfer to another

Example:

She disposed of her parents' possessions

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "dispose" is one way to...):

sell (exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dispose"):

redispose (dispose anew)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

disposition (the act or means of getting rid of something)

Credits

 Context examples: 

She felt the unexpected compliment, and deeply regretted the impossibility of thinking well of a man so kindly disposed towards herself, and so full of civility to all her family.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

You are rather disposed to call his interference officious?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Astrocytes are thought to be responsible for disposing of excess neurochemicals at synapses, the connections between neurons.

(Research on repetitive worm behavior has implications for understanding human diseases, National Science Foundation)

He cannot have been disposed of in so short a space; he must be still alive, he must have fled!

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“Yes, brother Jerome, I wish that this matter be disposed of with as little scandal as may be, and yet it is needful that the example should be a public one.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The fountains, gardens, walks, avenues, and groves, were all disposed with exact judgment and taste.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I wrote to him, Anson, and told him that Rodney was growing a man now, thinking, since he had no wife or child of his own, he might be disposed to advance him.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She was perfectly disposed to make every allowance for the colonel's advanced state of life which humanity required.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Carefully handle and dispose of products that contain mercury.

(Mercury, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry)

The activity or result of distributing or disposing of things properly or methodically.

(Organization, NCI Thesaurus)