DESPATCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does despatch mean? 

• DESPATCH (noun)
  The noun DESPATCH has 4 senses:

1. an official report (usually sent in haste)

2. the property of being prompt and efficient

3. killing a person or animal

4. the act of sending off something

  Familiarity information: DESPATCH used as a noun is uncommon.

• DESPATCH (verb)
  The verb DESPATCH has 1 sense:

1. send away towards a designated goal

  Familiarity information: DESPATCH used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESPATCH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An official report (usually sent in haste)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

communique; despatch; dispatch

Hypernyms ("despatch" is a kind of...):

account; news report; report; story; write up (a short account of the news)

Meronyms (parts of "despatch"):

dateline (a line at the beginning of a news article giving the date and place of origin of the news dispatch)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The property of being prompt and efficient

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

despatch; dispatch; expedition; expeditiousness

Context example:

it was done with dispatch

Hypernyms ("despatch" is a kind of...):

celerity; quickness; rapidity; rapidness; speediness (a rate that is rapid)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Killing a person or animal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

despatch; dispatch

Hypernyms ("despatch" is a kind of...):

kill; killing; putting to death (the act of terminating a life)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of sending off something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

despatch; dispatch; shipment

Hypernyms ("despatch" is a kind of...):

departure; going; going away; leaving (the act of departing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "despatch"):

reshipment (the act of shipping again (especially by transferring to another ship))

Derivation:

despatch (send away towards a designated goal)

• DESPATCH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they despatch    ... he / she / it despatches   
Past simple: despatched   
Past participle: despatched   
-ing form: despatching   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Send away towards a designated goal

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

despatch; dispatch; send off

Hypernyms (to "despatch" is one way to...):

send; ship; transport (transport commercially)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "despatch"):

bundle off (send off unceremoniously)

route (send documents or materials to appropriate destinations)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

despatch (the act of sending off something)

 Context examples 

The thing was done thoroughly and with despatch.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But how is your acquaintance to be long supported, under such extraordinary despatch of every subject for discourse?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Here then is my first despatch from a field of battle:

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I used all despatch, and am thankful I was not too late: as you, doubtless, must be also.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

By afternoon, Perrault, who was in a hurry to be on the trail with his despatches, returned with two more dogs.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

She took charge of him, lifting his head to keep the blood out of it and despatching me to the cabin for a pillow.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The despatch came from court about the time we expected.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The boy handed in a despatch.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Invitations were sent with despatch, and many a young lady went to bed that night with her head full of happy cares as well as Fanny.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“The regularity and despatch of it! If one thinks of all that it has to do, and all that it does so well, it is really astonishing!”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)