dispensable, a.
(dɪˈspɛnsəb(ə)l)
[ad. med.L. dispensābil-is, f. dispensāre to dispense: see -ble. Cf. F. dispensable (16th c. in Littré).]
1. Eccl. Subject to dispensation. a. Capable of being permitted in special circumstances, though against the canons; capable of being remitted or condoned, though an offence or sin.
| 1533 More Let. to Cromwell Wks. 1425/1 Sodenly his highnes..shewed me that..his mariage was..in such wise against the lawe of nature, that it coulde in no wyse by the churche be dispensable. 1536 Act 28 Hen. VIII, c. 7 §5 The maryage..was..ayenst the lawes of almighty god, and not dispensable by any humayne auctoritie. 1562 Fills in Strype Ann. I. xxxiii. 371 Horrible sins are dispensable for money. a 1709 Atkyns Parl. & Pol. Tracts (1734) 296 The Distinction of Mala Prohibita, into such as are dispensable, and such as are not dispensable. |
b. Capable of being dispensed with or declared non-obligatory in a special case, as a law, canon, oath, etc.
| a 1612 Donne βιαθανατος (1644) 106 If it [the Law] be dispensable in some cases beneficiall to a man. 1679 Burnet Hist. Ref. I. i. ii. 152 He was then of opinion that the law in Leviticus was dispensable. 1690 Stillingfl. Charge to Clergy (T.), The question..is, whether the church's benefit may not..make the canons against non-residence as dispensable as those against translations. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. iv. iii. §23 Durand seems to have thought the fifth commandment (our sixth) more dispensable than the rest. 1890 Pall Mall G. 15 Feb. 2/2 Celibate friars with ‘dispensable vows’ are henceforth to be one of the recognized agencies of the Church of England. |
2. Allowable, excusable, pardonable. arch. or Obs.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxiv. (Arb.) 286 It came not of vanitie but of a fatherly affection, ioying in the sport and company of his little children, in which respect..it was dispenceable in him and not indecent. a 1684 Leighton Comm. 1 Pet. iii. 8 In his saddest times, when he might seem most dispensable to forget other things. 1704 Swift T. Tub vi. (Seager), If straining a point were at all dispensable. |
3. That can be dispensed with or done without; unessential, omissible; unimportant.
| 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. iii. xvi. 54 Things, which indeed are pious, and religious, but dispensable, voluntary and commutable. 1653 H. More Conject. Cabbal. Pref. A vij (T.), Speculative and dispensable truths a man..ought rather to propound..sceptically to the world. 1842 Blackie in Tait's Mag. IX. 749 Books..are yet only of secondary use..and can never render the hearing ear, and the speaking tongue dispensable. 1867 Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 118 Not a tone of colour..is misplaced or dispensable. |
4. Capable of being dispensed or administered.
| 1680 St. Trials, Col. Andrewe (R.), If they be laws, they must be..dispensable by the ordinary courts of the land. |
Hence diˈspensableness = dispensability.
| 1654 Hammond Fundamentals xii. §2 (R.) Of Dispensableness of Oaths. |