different between dispense vs divide

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d?s?p?ns/
• Rhymes: -?ns
• Hyphenation: dis?pense

Verb

dispense (third-person singular simple present dispenses, present participle dispensing, simple past and past participle dispensed)

1. To issue, distribute, or give out.
   • 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber 2005, p.40:

     The smoky spray seemed to trap whatever light there was and to dispense it subtly.

2. To apply, as laws to particular cases; to administer; to execute; to manage; to direct.

   to dispense justice

   • 1662, John Dryden, To the Lord Chancellor Hyde

     While you dispense the laws, and guide the state.

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.
   • 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.
   • His synne was dispensed with golde, wherof it was compensed

Derived terms

• dispensary
• dispenser
• dispense with

Translations

Noun

dispense (countable and uncountable, plural dispenses)

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

Translations

Derived terms

• dispensable
• dispensation
• dispensative
• dispensatory

Related terms

• dispend

Further reading

• dispense in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• dispense in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• dispense at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• despines, piedness

French

Etymology

Deverbal of dispenser.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

dispense f (plural dispenses)

1. dispensation

Verb

dispense

1. first-person singular present indicative of dispenser
2. third-person singular present indicative of dispenser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of dispenser
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of dispenser
5. second-person singular imperative of dispenser

Further reading

• “dispense” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• pendisse

Italian

Noun

dispense f

1. plural of dispensa

Verb

dispense

1. third-person singular past historic of dispegnere

Anagrams

• pendessi

Portuguese

Verb

dispense

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of dispensar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of dispensar
3. first-person singular imperative of dispensar
4. third-person singular imperative of dispensar

Spanish

Verb

dispense

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of dispensar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of dispensar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of dispensar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of dispensar.

English

Etymology

From Middle English dividen, from Latin d?v?dere (“to divide”). Displaced native Old English t?d?lan.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??va?d/

Verb

divide (third-person singular simple present divides, present participle dividing, simple past and past participle divided)

1. (transitive) To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.

   • Divide the living child in two.

2. (transitive) To share (something) by dividing it.
3. (transitive, arithmetic, with by) To calculate the number (the quotient) by which you must multiply one given number (the divisor) to produce a second given number (the dividend).

4. (transitive, arithmetic) To be a divisor of.

5. (intransitive) To separate into two or more parts.
6. (intransitive, biology) Of a cell, to reproduce by dividing.
7. To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.

   • If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

   • 1838, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic

     Every family became now divided within itself.

8. (obsolete) To break friendship; to fall out.
9. (obsolete) To have a share; to partake.
10. To vote, as in the British parliament and other legislatures, by the members separating themselves into two parties (as on opposite sides of the hall or in opposite lobbies), that is, the ayes dividing from the noes.

    • The emperors sat, voted, and divided with their equals.

11. To mark divisions on; to graduate.

12. (music) To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations.

Synonyms

• (split into parts): cut up, disunite, partition, split, split up
• (share by dividing): divvy up, divide up, share, share out
• (separate into parts): separate, shear, split, split up

Antonyms

• (split into two or more parts): combine, merge, unify, unite
• (calculate times of multiplication): multiply

Derived terms

Terms derived from divide (verb and noun)

• continental divide
• Divide County
• divvy
• divide up, divvy up

Related terms

• (act of dividing): division
• (the sum being divided; the upper term in a fraction): dividend
• (the number of parts in a division; the lower term in a fraction): divisor

Translations

See also

• fraction, fraction slash, ?, fraction bar, vinculum (Australia)
• ratio, ? (also improperly :)
• (product of division): quotient
• (extra amount left by uneven division): remainder
• division sign, obelus, ÷
• division slash, ? (also improperly /)
• long division symbol, division bracket, )? or |?

Noun

divide (plural divides)

1. A thing that divides.

   Stay on your side of the divide, please.

2. An act of dividing.

   The divide left most of the good land on my share of the property.

   • 1975, Byte (issues 1-8, page 14)

     The extended instruction set may double the speed again if a lot of multiplies and divides are done.

3. A distancing between two people or things.

   There is a great divide between us.

4. (geography) A large chasm, gorge, or ravine between two areas of land.

   If you're heading to the coast, you'll have to cross the divide first.

   The team crossed streams and jumped across deep, narrow divides in the glacier.

   • 1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate

     Carrying light packs they left camp at daylight the next morning. Trails there were none; but they followed the general course of a small creek, crossed a divide, and dipped down into a beautifully timbered valley watered by a swift, large creek of almost riverlike dimensions.

5. (hydrology) The topographical boundary dividing two adjacent catchment basins, such as a ridge or a crest.

Translations

Anagrams

• divied

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ide

Verb

divide

1. third-person singular present indicative of dividere

Latin

Verb

d?vide

1. second-person singular present active imperative of d?vid?

Portuguese

Verb

divide

1. Second-person singular (tu) affirmative imperative of dividir
2. Third-person singular (ele, ela, also used with tu and você^?) present indicative of dividir

Spanish

Verb

divide

1. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of dividir.
2. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of dividir.