different between dispose vs instruct

English

Etymology

From French disposer.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /d?s?po?z/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d??sp??z/
• Rhymes: -??z

Verb

dispose (third-person singular simple present disposes, present participle disposing, simple past and past participle disposed)

1. (intransitive, used with "of") To eliminate or to get rid of something.

2. To distribute or arrange; to put in place.
   • 1600, William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 4, scene III

     Now, dear soldiers, march away: / And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!

   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, chapter 6

     Marianne’s pianoforte was unpacked and properly disposed of, and Elinor’s drawing were affixed to the walls of their sitting rooms.

   • 1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, 1992 Bantam edition, ?ISBN, page 47:

     I sat down within three feet of the entrance door, and I had no sooner got disposed than the door opened and a man came in […] .

3. To deal out; to assign to a use.
   • 1818 (first published), John Evelyn, diary entry for 1634

     what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor

4. To incline.

   (Used here intransitively in the passive voice)

   • Endure and conquer; Jove will soon dispose / To future good our past and present woes.

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Suspicion

     They [suspicions] dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to jealousy, and wise men to irresolution and melancholy.

   • At twilight in the summer […] the mice come out. They […] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly […] on the floor.

5. (obsolete) To bargain; to make terms.
6. (obsolete) To regulate; to adjust; to settle; to determine.

   • the knightly forms of combat to dispose

Synonyms

• incline
• discard

Antonyms

• indispose
• disincline

Derived terms

• disposition
• disposal
• dispose of

Translations

Noun

dispose

1. (obsolete) The disposal or management of something.
2. (obsolete) Behaviour; disposition.

French

Verb

dispose

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

Italian

Verb

dispose

1. third-person singular past historic of disporre

Anagrams

• dispeso

English

Etymology

From Latin ?nstr?ctus, perfect passive participle of ?nstru? (“I instruct; I arrange, furnish, or provide”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n?st??kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

instruct (third-person singular simple present instructs, present participle instructing, simple past and past participle instructed)

1. (transitive) To teach by giving instructions.

   Synonyms: educate, guide

   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act I, Scene 3,^[1]

     Supply me with the habit and instruct me

     How I may formally in person bear me

     Like a true friar.

   • 1682, Aphra Behn, The False Count, London: Jacob Tonson, Act III, Scene 2, p. 33,^[2]

     What a dishonour’s this, to me, to have so Dull a Father, that needs to be instructed in his Duty.

   • 1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 156, 14 September, 1751, in Volume 5, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 177,^[3]

     […] the design of tragedy is to instruct by moving the passions,

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Chapter 10,^[4]

     […] I should deem you a man sore sick, it may be, yet not so sick but that an instructed and watchful physician might well hope to cure you.

   • 1974, Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, New York: William Morrow, Part 4, Chapter 29, p. 353,^[5]

     At the Laundromat I instruct Chris on how to operate the drier, start the washing machines […]

2. (transitive) To tell (someone) what they must or should do.

   Synonyms: command, direct, order

   Usage note: "instruct" is less forceful than "order", but weightier than "advise"

   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act III, Scene 1,^[6]

     What, shall a child instruct you what to do?

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 39,^[7]

     All the servants were instructed to address her as “Mum,” or “Madam” […]

   • 1989, John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, New York: Ballantine, 1997, Chapter 5, p. 195,^[8]

     Observing that the Christ Child’s nose was running, she deftly wiped it; then she held the handkerchief in place, while instructing him to “blow.”

Related terms

Translations

Noun

instruct (plural instructs)

1. (obsolete) Instruction.

Adjective

instruct (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Arranged; furnished; provided.
   • c. 1615, George Chapman (translator), Homer’s Odysses, London: Nathaniell Butter, Book 4, p. 62,^[9]

     For he had neither ship, instruct with oares,

     Nor men to fetch him from those stranger shores.

2. (obsolete) Instructed; taught; enlightened.
   • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, London: John Starkey, Book 1, lines 438-441, p. 24,^[10]

     Who ever by consulting at thy shrine

     Return’d the wiser, or the more instruct

     To flye or follow what concern’d him most,

     And run not sooner to his fatal snare?

Anagrams

• unstrict