dispense

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French dispenser, from Latin dispēnsāre (“to weigh out, pay out, distribute, regulate, manage, control, dispense”), frequentative of dispendere (“to weigh out”), from dis- (“apart”) + pendere (“to weigh”).

verb

1. To issue, distribute, or give out.
   The smoky spray seemed to trap whatever light there was and to dispense it subtly. 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 40
2. To apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct.
   to dispense justice
   While you dispense the laws, and guide the state. 1662, John Dryden, To the Lord Chancellor Hyde
3. To supply or make up a medicine or prescription.
   The pharmacist dispensed my tablets.
   An optician can dispense spectacles.
4. (obsolete) To give a dispensation to (someone); to excuse.
   Of evils the first and greatest is, that hereby a most absurd and rash imputation is fixt upon God and his holy Laws, of conniving and dispensing with open and common adultery among his chosen people; a thing which the rankest politician would think it shame and disworship, that his Laws should countenance; how and in what manner this comes to passe, I shall reserve, till the course of method brings on the unfolding of many Scriptures. 1643, John Milton, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
   1779–81, Samuel Johnson, "Richard Savage" in Lives of the Most Eminent English Poet He appeared to think himself born to be supported by others, and dispensed from all necessity of providing for himself.
5. (intransitive, obsolete) To compensate; to make up; to make amends.

noun

1. (obsolete) Cost, expenditure.
2. (obsolete) The act of dispensing, dispensation.