Disposes

Disposes is the third-person singular present tense of the verb dispose. It is used to describe the act of getting rid of something, whether by discarding, selling, giving away, destroying, or otherwise removing it. It can also mean to arrange or place something in a particular order or condition, or, in legal contexts, to transfer or settle an asset or matter.

Etymology traces dispose to the Latin disponere, meaning to put apart or to arrange. The prefix dis- conveys separation, and ponere means to put or place, yielding senses related to arranging, placing, or distributing.

In common usage, dispose is transitive with the preposition of or without an object, as in dispose of the trash, dispose of old furniture, or dispose of a debt. In legal language, to dispose of property or an estate means to transfer ownership or to settle the distribution according to a will or law. The phrase can also describe the resolution of issues or cases, as in a court disposing of a matter.

Related terms include disposition (the act of disposing, or a person’s inherent temperament), disposee (one who receives a disposal), and disposal (the action of disposing or the means of doing so, as in waste disposal). The word is commonly found in both everyday speech and formal documents, and it should be used with care to avoid ambiguity about what is being removed, transferred, or settled.