DISPOSE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does dispose mean? 

• DISPOSE (verb)
  The verb DISPOSE has 5 senses:

1. give, sell, or transfer to another

2. throw or cast away

3. make receptive or willing towards an action or attitude or belief

4. place or put in a particular order

5. make fit or prepared

  Familiarity information: DISPOSE used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISPOSE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they dispose    ... he / she / it disposes   
Past simple: disposed   
Past participle: disposed   
-ing form: disposing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give, sell, or transfer to another

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Context example:

She disposed of her parents' possessions

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Throw or cast away

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

Put away your worries

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 3

Meaning:

Make receptive or willing towards an action or attitude or belief

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

dispose; incline

Context example:

Their language inclines us to believe them

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 4

Meaning:

Place or put in a particular order

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

the dots are unevenly disposed

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 5

Meaning:

Make fit or prepared

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

dispose; qualify

Context example:

Your education qualifies you for this job

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

 Context examples 

“I hope she will prove a well-disposed girl,” continued Mrs. Norris, “and be sensible of her uncommon good fortune in having such friends.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The difficulty of disposing of poor Mr. Woodhouse had been always felt in her husband's plans and her own, for a marriage between Frank and Emma.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I have been telling your daughter how well I have been disposing of my money for myself, because I couldn't trust it to you, as you were growing rusty in business matters.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

You will ask me why I did not dispose of it?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am disposed to help your Grace to the best of my ability, but, in order to do so, I must understand to the last detail how the matter stands.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She was tenderly disposed toward him, but she did not know it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

We have reason to believe that you have taken a paper of importance from the Foreign Office, and that you ran in here to dispose of it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I resisted all the way: a new thing for me, and a circumstance which greatly strengthened the bad opinion Bessie and Miss Abbot were disposed to entertain of me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

To those, however, he was very well disposed to attach himself.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Then she tried a child's story, which she could easily have disposed of if she had not been mercenary enough to demand filthy lucre for it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)