The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dispatch \Dis*patch"\ (?; 224), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dispatched; p. pr. & vb. n. Dispatching.] [OF. despeechier, F. d['e]p[^e]cher; prob. from pref. des- (L. dis-) + (assumed) LL. pedicare to place obstacles in the way, fr. L. pedica fetter, fr. pes, pedis, foot. See Foot, and cf. Impeach, Despatch.] [Written also despatch.]
-
To dispose of speedily, as business; to execute quickly; to make a speedy end of; to finish; to perform.
Ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we The business we have talked of.
--Shak.[The] harvest men . . . almost in one fair day dispatcheth all the harvest work.
--Robynson (More's Utopia). -
To rid; to free. [Obs.]
I had clean dispatched myself of this great charge.
--Udall. -
To get rid of by sending off; to send away hastily.
Unless dispatched to the mansion house in the country . . . they perish among the lumber of garrets.
--Walpole. -
To send off or away; -- particularly applied to sending off messengers, messages, letters, etc., on special business, and implying haste.
Even with the speediest expedition I will dispatch him to the emperor's cou??.
--Shak. -
To send out of the world; to put to death.
The company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords.
--Ezek. xxiii. 47.Syn: To expedite; hasten; speed; accelerate; perform; conclude; finish; slay; kill.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The sending of somebody or something to a destination for a purpose. 2 (context informal English) burial vb. (present participle of dispatch English)
Usage examples of "dispatching".
What with the bustle of dispatching Peepy and the bustle of getting myself ready and helping Ada, I was soon quite in a glow.
Dispatching an armored corps to the Golan Heights in 1973, threatening Syria with war in 1976, and sending five divisions to the Syrian border in 2000 were all rash acts that either were or could have been disastrous for Saddam.
Henry was on the telephone dispatching barristers to far-flung Magistrates Courts.
We will be dispatching twenty-one capital ships, fifteen fleet and light carriers, and a strong escort of lighter units.
Asked to predict the most likely site of synaptic plasticity, theoreticians would probably have opted for the inter-neurons, as these can clearly receive and modulate signals from many different inputs before dispatching them to varied outputs.
The silenced weapon coughed four times in rapid succession, dispatching two parabellum manglers into the auto grillwork and two more at precise points through the windshield.
While other networks and the print press were unlikely to be deceived by such tactics, anything that might lessen their own urgency in dispatching reporting teams to Peru would be an advantage.
At my present place of confinement the fear of our recapture had also taken possession of the Rebel authorities, so the prisoners were sent off in much smaller squads than formerly, frequently not more than ten or fifteen in a gang, whereas, before, they never thought of dispatching less than two or three hundred together.
He then tried splitting up the Fleet, dispatching his most powerful starcruisers to defend those planets in most immediate danger.
A few seconds too late, it struck the captain of the AAnn ship with appalling realization that dispatching explosive devices in the general direction of the newly revealed colossus might be interpreted by an unknown sentience as something other than a benevolent gesture.
And here, at the climax of this night of celebration, this one who creeps toward me on his belly, Bareface, will prove his courage by dispatching me to the aurora.
They took very little time in devouring themselves, and when it was over, the victors were so weak that I had no difficulty in dispatching them into the same graves into which they had consigned their most recent adversaries.
Accordingly, Caesar dispatching couriers, writes to Domitius, and acquaints him with his wishes on the subject: and having stationed a garrison of four cohorts at Apollonia, one at Lissus, and three at Oricum, besides those who were sick of their wounds, he set forward on his march through Epirus and Acarnania.
After dispatching a galloper to seek out King Arthur, he toed Bruiser forward to slowly descend the hillslope, his escort of dragoons following him and the foreign nobleman who rode at his side.
The railroad officials thought they were being clever by rerouting the gold car over half the countryside instead of dispatching it direct over the main track.