despatch

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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Example sentences

The first stroke will despatch me, and put an end both to my life and pain.

It is a tiresome way of speaking, when you should despatch the business, to beat about the bush.

On the contrary, only solid virtue is able to do business, and to despatch it well.

Despatch rates must be one-half of demurrage rates quoted.

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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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