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despatch

[dih-spach]

verb (used with object), verb (used without object), noun

dispatch.

Related forms

out·des·patch, verb (used with object)

un·des·patched, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Despatch is one of our favorite verbs.

So is bowdlerise. Does it mean:

to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.

to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

despatch (dɪˈspætʃ)

—vb
	(tr) a less common spelling of dispatch

des'patcher

—n

dispatch or despatch (dɪˈspætʃ)

—vb
1.	to send off promptly, as to a destination or to perform a task
2.	to discharge or complete (a task, duty, etc) promptly
3.	informal to eat up quickly
4.	to murder or execute

—n
5.	the act of sending off a letter, messenger, etc
6.	prompt action or speed (often in the phrase with dispatch)
7.	an official communication or report, sent in haste
8.	journalism a report sent to a newspaper, etc, by a correspondent
9.	murder or execution

[C16: from Italian dispacciare, from Provençal despachar, from Old French despeechier to set free, from des-dis-¹ + -peechier, ultimately from Latin pedica a fetter]

despatch or despatch

—vb

—n

[C16: from Italian dispacciare, from Provençal despachar, from Old French despeechier to set free, from des-dis-¹ + -peechier, ultimately from Latin pedica a fetter]

dis'patcher or despatch

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Matching Quote

"Imagine that leader of all the enemy, in that great plain of Babylon, sitting on a sort of throne of smoking flame, a horrible and terrifying sight. Watch him calling together countless devils, to despatch them into different cities till the whole world is covered, forgetting no province or locality, no class or single individual."

-Saint Ignatius of Loyola

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