English Dictionary: dispatching | by the DICT Development Group |
1 result for dispatching | |
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Dispatch \Dis*patch"\ (?; 224), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Dispatched}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Dispatching}.] [OF. despeechier, F. d[82]p[88]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}.] 1. 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). 2. To rid; to free. [Obs.] I had clean dispatched myself of this great charge. --Udall. 3. 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. 4. 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. 5. 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. |