dispensation
English
Etymology
From Old French despensacion, from Latin dispensātiō.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /dɪsˌpɛnˈseɪʃən/
Audio (UK) (file)
- Rhymes: -eɪʃən
Noun
dispensation (countable and uncountable, plural dispensations)
- The act of dispensing or dealing out; distribution
- a fair dispensation of money
- The distribution of good and evil by God to man.
- 1625, George Sandys, Sacrae heptades
- Shall we not accompt theſe a part of Gods dispenſation, and therefore good in the Fountaine, from whence they flowed
- 1625, George Sandys, Sacrae heptades
- That which is dispensed, dealt out, or given; that which is bestowed on someone
- 2016, Robert D. Cornwall, William Gibson, Religion, Politics and Dissent
- Bowman certainly lost no time in travelling south to obtain his dispensation once he had published the sermon
- 2016, Robert D. Cornwall, William Gibson, Religion, Politics and Dissent
- A system of principles, promises, and rules ordained and administered; scheme; economy
- the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian dispensations
- The relaxation of a law in a particular case; permission to do something forbidden, or to omit doing something enjoined; exemption.
- 2003, J. Abraham, H. Lawton Smith, Helen Lawton Smith, Regulation of the Pharmaceutical Industry
- Special grounds for giving dispensation to see classified documents include research purposes.
- (Catholicism) In the Roman Catholic Church, an exemption from some ecclesiastical law, or from an obligation to God which a person has incurred of his own free will (oaths, vows, etc.).
- 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 2392685, pages 5–6:
- [H]e had a dispensation for conforming in outward observances to the Protestant faith.
- 1905, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, May Margaret: called "the fair maid of Galloway," - Page 184:
- Why, there has gone already to Rome a messenger to crave a second dispensation from his Popeship, and the King himself hath signed the request, praying that you and I should graciously be permitted to wed!
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- 2003, J. Abraham, H. Lawton Smith, Helen Lawton Smith, Regulation of the Pharmaceutical Industry
Related terms
- dispensationalism
- dispensationalist
Translations
act of dispensing
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that which is dispensed
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system of principles, promises, and rules ordained and administered
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relaxation of a law in a particular case
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