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The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: Section D and E · Project Gutenberg — chapter 396 of 964 · ~398 words · public domain

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Barrow.

Dis*pos"ing*ly, adv. In a manner to dispose.

Dis*pos"it*ed (?), a. [See Disposition.] Disposed. [Obs.] Glanvill.

Dis`po*si"tion (?), n. [F. disposition, dispositio, fr. disponere to dispose; dis- + ponere to place. See Position, and cf. Dispone.] 1. The act of disposing, arranging, ordering, regulating, or transferring; application; disposal; as, the disposition of a man's property by will.

Who have received the law by the disposition of angels.

Acts vii. 53.

The disposition of the work, to put all things in a beautiful order and harmony, that the whole may be of a piece.

Dryden.

2. The state or the manner of being disposed or arranged; distribution; arrangement; order; as, the disposition of the trees in an orchard; the disposition of the several parts of an edifice.

3. Tendency to any action or state resulting from natural constitution; nature; quality; as, a disposition in plants to grow in a direction upward; a disposition in bodies to putrefaction.

4. Conscious inclination; propension or propensity.

How stands your disposition to be married?

Shak.

5. Natural or prevailing spirit, or temperament of mind, especially as shown in intercourse with one's fellow-men; temper of mind. "A man of turbulent disposition." Hallam. "He is of a very melancholy disposition." Shak.

His disposition led him to do things agreeable to his quality and condition wherein God had placed him.

Strype.

6. Mood; humor.

As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on.

Shak.

Syn. -- Disposal; adjustment; regulation; arrangement; distribution; order; method; adaptation; inclination; propensity; bestowment; alienation; character; temper; mood. -- Disposition, Character, Temper. Disposition is the natural humor of a person, the predominating quality of his character, the constitutional habit of his mind. Character is this disposition influenced by motive, training, and will. Temper is a quality of the fiber of character, and is displayed chiefly when the emotions, especially the passions, are aroused.

Dis`po*si"tion*al (?), a. Pertaining to disposition.

Dis`po*si"tioned (?), a. Having (such) a disposition; -- used in compounds; as, well- dispositioned.

Dis*pos"i*tive (?), a. [Cf. F. dispositif.] 1. Disposing; tending to regulate; decretive. [Obs.]

His dispositive wisdom and power.

Bates.

2. Belonging to disposition or natural, tendency. [Obs.] "Dispositive holiness." Jer. Taylor.

Dis*pos"i*tive*ly, adv. In a dispositive manner; by natural or moral disposition. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

Do dispositively what Moses is recorded to have done literally, . . . break all the ten commandments at once.

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