dispatch

verb

1. (transitive)To send (a shipment) with promptness.
2. (transitive)To send (a person) away hastily.

   “The League of One was suddenly exposed and in danger of being hunted by enemies of the salarians. Before any harm could be done, the team mysteriously disappeared.[...]Realizing the threat posed by this rogue outfit, the Special Tasks Group dispatched a team of hunters. When they didn't return, the STG dispatched ten of its brightest operators with broad discretionary powers. Only two returned; they reported no evidence of the League.”

3. (transitive)To send (an important official message) promptly, by means of a diplomat or military officer.
4. (transitive)To send (a journalist) to a place in order to report.

   “Scores of foreign journalists have been dispatched to Seoul to report on the growing tensions between the two Koreas and the possibility of war.”

5. (transitive)To dispose of speedily, as business; to execute quickly; to make a speedy end of; to finish; to perform.

   “Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we / The business we have talk'd of.”

   “the which company of harvest men, being ready at the day appointed, almost in one fair day dispatcheth all the harvest work.”

6. (transitive)To eat, especially quickly.
7. (transitive)To rid; to free.

   “But whā I had cleane diſpatched myſelf of this great charge and taſke, I loked not that I ſhould at any tyme afterwarde have any more to doe with this kynde of writing”

8. (transitive)To destroy (someone or something) quickly and efficiently.

   “"And our dogs used to tree the cats on our property here, and we'd dispatch them."”

   “So Tyrion hatches one last brilliant scheme in a season full of them, and this one goes exactly as well as all the others, even if it doesn’t look like it at first. He alone takes a meeting with Cersei, in her chambers, with the Mountain ready and waiting to dispatch him.”

9. (transitive)To defeat

   “Gareth Southgate's side had little trouble dispatching the side 172nd in the Fifa rankings.”

10. (transitive)To pass on for further processing, especially via a dispatch table (often with to).

    “These handlers perform any additional checking and processing that may be necessary before and after a message is dispatched to an object. In addition, some message types are handled internally by the kernel[…]”

11. (intransitive, obsolete)To hurry.

    “prithee, dispatch”

    ““Proceed, friend Nicolas, and let us dispatch; for, it grows late.””

12. (obsolete, transitive)To deprive.

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A message sent quickly, as a shipment, a prompt settlement of a business, or an important official message sent by a diplomat, government official, military officer, etc.

   “WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The act of doing something quickly.

   “We must act with dispatch in this matter.”

   “During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant[…]”

   “A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A mission by an emergency response service, typically involving attending to an emergency in the field.
4. (countable, uncountable)The passing on of a message for further processing, especially through a dispatch table.
5. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A dismissal.