dispensation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of dispensing.
2. n. Something dispensed.
3. n. A specific arrangement or system by which something is dispensed.
4. n. An exemption or release from an obligation or rule, granted by or as if by an authority.
5. n. An exemption from a church law, a vow, or another similar obligation granted in a particular case by an ecclesiastical authority.
6. n. The document containing this exemption.
7. n. Theology The divine ordering of worldly affairs.
8. n. Theology A religious system or code of commands considered to have been divinely revealed or appointed.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of dispensing or dealing out; distribution: as, the dispensation of royal favors; the dispensation of good and evil by Divine Providence.
2. n. A particular distribution of blessing or affliction dispensed by God to a person, family, community, or nation, in the course of his dealings with his creatures; that which is dispensed or dealt out by God: as, a sad dispensation; a merciful dispensation.
3. n. In theology: The method or scheme by which God has at different times developed his purposes, and revealed himself to man; or the body of privileges bestowed, and duties and responsibilities enjoined, in connection with that scheme or method of revelation: as, the old or Jewish dispensation; the new or Gospel dispensation. See grace.
4. n. A period marked by a particular development of the divine purpose and revelation: as, the patriarchal dispensation (lasting from Adam to Moses); the Mosaic dispensation (from Moses to Christ); the Christian dispensation.
5. n. Management; stewardship; an act or action as manager or steward.
6. n. A relaxation of the law in some particular case; specifically, a license granted (as by the pope or a bishop) relieving or exempting a person in certain circumstances from the action, obligations, or penalties of some law or regulation. The ecclesiastical laws of the Roman Catholic Church give to the pope the power of granting dispensations in certain cases, and of deputing this power to bishops and others. In universities a dispensation is a permission to omit some exercise.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of dispensing or dealing out; distribution; often used of the distribution of good and evil by God to man, or more generically, of the acts and modes of his administration.
2. n. That which is dispensed, dealt out, or appointed; that which is enjoined or bestowed
3. n. A system of principles, promises, and rules ordained and administered; scheme; economy; as, the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian dispensations.
4. n. The relaxation of a law in a particular case; permission to do something forbidden, or to omit doing something enjoined; specifically, in the Roman Catholic Church, exemption from some ecclesiastical law or obligation to God which a man has incurred of his own free will (oaths, vows, etc.).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of dispensing or dealing out; distribution; often used of the distribution of good and evil by God to man, or more generically, of the acts and modes of his administration.
2. n. (Theol.) That which is dispensed, dealt out, or appointed; that which is enjoined or bestowed. A system of principles, promises, and rules ordained and administered; scheme; economy.
3. n. The relaxation of a law in a particular case; permission to do something forbidden, or to omit doing something enjoined; specifically, in the Roman Catholic Church, exemption from some ecclesiastical law or obligation to God which a man has incurred of his own free will (oaths, vows, etc.).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a share that has been dispensed or distributed
2. n. the act of dispensing (giving out in portions)
3. n. an exemption from some rule or obligation