dispensableadj.
/dɪˈspɛnsəb(ə)l/ 1. Ecclesiastical. 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.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > ecclesiastical authority > [adjective] > subject to dispensation
dispensable1533
indulged1682
1533 T. More Let. to T. Cromwell in Wks. (1577) II. 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 J. Strype Ann. I. xxxiii. 371 Horrible sins are dispensable for money.
a1710 R. Atkyns Parl. & Polit. 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.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > law > canon law > [adjective] > capable of being dispensed with
dispensive1590
dispensablea1631
dispensible1661
a1631 J. Donne Βιαθανατος (1647) ii. iv. §6 If it [sc. the law] be dispensable in some cases beneficiall to a man.
1679 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Reformation: 1st Pt. i. ii. 152 He was then of opinion that the law in Leviticus was dispensable.
1690 E. Stillingfleet 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.
1839 H. Hallam Introd. Lit. Europe III. iv. 332 Durand seems to have thought the fifth commandment (our sixth) more dispensable than the rest.
1890 Pall Mall Gaz. 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. archaic or Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xxiv. 234 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 & not indecent.
a1684 R. Leighton Pract. Comm. 1st Epist. Peter (1694) II. 37 In his saddest times, when he might seem most dispensable to forget other things.
1704 J. Swift Tale of Tub vi. 132 If straining a Point were at all dispensable.
3. That can be dispensed with or done without; unessential, omissible; unimportant.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [adjective] > unessential
indifferent1563
of indifferency1564
unfundamental1638
dispensable1649
recrementitious1650
immaterial1698
recrementory1822
unessential1841
1649 Bp. J. Taylor Great Exemplar iii. xvi. 54 Things, which indeed are pious, and religious, but dispensable, voluntary and commutable.
1653 H. More Second Lash of Alazonomastix Pref. sig. A vij (T.) Speculative and dispensable truths a man..ought rather to propound..sceptically to the world.
1842 Blackie in Tait's Edinb. Mag. 9 749 Books..are yet only of secondary use..and can never render the hearing ear, and the speaking tongue dispensable.
1867 A. C. Swinburne in Fortn. Rev. July 23 Not a tone of colour..is misplaced or dispensable.
4. Capable of being dispensed or administered.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > law enforcement > [adjective]
enforceable1589
dispensable1660
1660 F. Buckley True Relation Tryal Col. Andrewe 46 If they be lawes, they must be..dispensable by the ordinary Courts of the Land.
Derivatives
diˈspensableness n. = dispensability n.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > ecclesiastical authority > [noun] > ordinance of > dispensation > capability of being subject to
dispensability1650
dispensableness1654
1654 H. Hammond Of Fund. in Notion xii. 109 Of Dispensableness of Oathes.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1896; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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adj.1533