Disposition

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Disposition \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.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              Who have received the law by the disposition of
              angels.                               --Acts vii.
                                                    53.
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              The disposition of the work, to put all things in a
              beautiful order and harmony, that the whole may be
              of a piece.                           --Dryden.
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     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.
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     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.
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     4. Conscious inclination; propension or propensity.
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              How stands your disposition to be married? --Shak.
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     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.
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              His disposition led him to do things agreeable to
              his quality and condition wherein God had placed
              him.                                  --Strype.
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     6. Mood; humor.
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              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.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  disposition
       n 1: your usual mood; "he has a happy disposition" [syn: {temperament}]
       2: the act or means of getting rid of something [syn: {disposal}]
       3: an attitude of mind especially one that favors one
          alternative over others; "he had an inclination to give up
          too easily"; "a tendency to be too strict" [syn: {inclination},
           {tendency}]
       4: a natural or acquired habit or characteristic tendency in a
          person or thing; "a swelling with a disposition to
          rupture"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  369 Moby Thesaurus words for "disposition":
     a thing for, abalienation, abandonment, abjuration, administration,
     affinity, alienation, allocation, allotment, amortization,
     amortizement, animus, appetence, appetency, appetite,
     apportionment, approach, aptitude, aptness, arrangement, array,
     arraying, assignation, assignment, attack, attitude, authority,
     bargain and sale, barter, battle array, being, bent, bequeathal,
     bestowal, bias, blueprint, blueprinting, body-build, brand,
     calculation, cast, cession, character, characteristic,
     characteristics, charting, choice, civil government, claws,
     clearance, close formation, clutches, collation, collocation,
     command, command function, complexion, composition, conation,
     conatus, conception, concord, conduciveness, conferment, conferral,
     consignation, consignment, constituents, constitution, contrivance,
     control, controlling, conveyance, conveyancing, crasis, decision,
     decision-making, deeding, delight, deliverance, delivery, demise,
     deployment, deportation, deposit, deposition, design, desire,
     detachment, determination, device, dharma, diathesis, direction,
     disbursal, disbursement, discard, discarding, discipline,
     discretion, disjunction, dispensation, dispersion, disposal,
     distribution, dole, doling, doling out, dominion, dumping,
     eagerness, eccentricity, echelon, ejection, elimination, empery,
     empire, emplacement, enfeoffment, enterprise, envisagement,
     eradication, ethos, exchange, executive function, exile,
     expatriation, expulsion, fancy, feeling for, fiber, figuring,
     foresight, forethought, forgoing, form, form of government,
     formation, formulation, forswearing, frame, frame of mind,
     free choice, free will, game, genius, getting rid of, giving,
     giving out, giving up, governance, government, grain, graphing,
     grip, ground plan, grouping, guidelines, habit, hand, hands,
     harmony, hue, humor, humors, idea, identity, idiosyncrasy, ilk,
     inclination, inclining, individualism, individuality, intention,
     iron hand, issuance, jettison, junking, jurisdiction, kidney, kind,
     lading, layout, leaning, lease and release, letting go, liability,
     liking, lineup, liquidation, loading, localization, locating,
     location, long-range plan, lust, make, makeup, management, mapping,
     marshaling, master plan, mental set, method, methodology, mettle,
     mind, mind-set, mold, mood, nature, objective, officiation,
     open order, operations research, order, order of battle, ordering,
     organization, ostracism, outlawing, outlawry, oversight, packing,
     passing around, passion, paying out, peace, penchant, personality,
     physique, pinpointing, placement, placing, plan, planning,
     planning function, pleasure, political organization, polity,
     positioning, posting, power, prearrangement, predilection,
     predisposition, prejudice, probability, procedure, proclivity,
     program, program of action, proneness, propensity, property,
     proportion, purge, putting, quality, quiet, quietude, raj,
     rationalization, readiness, recantation, reference, regime,
     regimen, regimentation, regnancy, regularity, regulation, reign,
     release, relegation, relinquishment, removal, renunciation,
     reposition, resignation, resolution, retraction, riddance, routine,
     rule, sacrifice, sale, schedule, schema, schematism,
     schematization, scheme, scheme of arrangement, scrapping,
     sensitivity to, sequence, set, settlement, settling, setup,
     severance, sexual desire, situation, slant, soft spot, somatotype,
     sort, sovereignty, spirit, spotting, stamp, stationing, storage,
     stowage, strain, strategic plan, strategy, streak, stripe,
     structure, structuring, suchness, supervision, surrender,
     susceptibility, suspension, sway, swearing off, symmetry, syntax,
     system, system of government, systematization, tactical plan,
     tactics, talons, temper, temperament, tendency, tenor,
     the big picture, the picture, tone, trading, tranquillity,
     transfer, transference, transmission, transmittal, tropism, turn,
     turn of mind, twist, type, uniformity, vein, velleity, vesting,
     volition, warp, way, weakness, will, will power, willingness, wish,
     withdrawal, working plan, yielding
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  DISPOSITION, French law. This word has several acceptations; sometimes it 
  signifies the effective marks of the will of some person; and at others the 
  instrument containing those marks. 
       2. The dispositions of man make the dispositions of the law to cease; 
  for example, when a man bequeaths his estate, the disposition he makes of 
  it, renders the legal disposition of it, if he had died intestate, to cease.