DICTATE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Dictate

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/dɪktˈeɪt/ /dˈɪktˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Dictate v. t. (past & past part. dictated; pres. part. dictating)

To tell or utter so that another may write down; to inspire; to compose; as, to dictate a letter to an amanuensis. "The mind which dictated the Iliad." "Pages dictated by the Holy Spirit."

To say; to utter; to communicate authoritatively; to deliver (a command) to a subordinate; to declare with authority; to impose; as, to dictate the terms of a treaty; a general dictates orders to his troops. "Whatsoever is dictated to us by God must be believed."

Synonyms: To suggest; prescribe; enjoin; command; point out; urge; admonish.

Dictate v. i.

To speak as a superior; to command; to impose conditions (on). "Who presumed to dictate to the sovereign."

To compose literary works; to tell what shall be written or said by another. "Sylla could not skill of letters, and therefore knew not how to dictate."

noun

Dictate n. A statement delivered with authority; an order; a command; an authoritative rule, principle, or maxim; a prescription; as, listen to the dictates of your conscience; the dictates of the gospel. "I credit what the Grecian dictates say."

Synonyms: Command; injunction; direction suggestion; impulse; admonition.

See images of 'Dictate'

Etymology of 'Dictate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dictate" Quotes from Famous Books

... wilderness, and their successors are now in possession of the promised land. Moses, and Joshua, and Caleb, have gone to their rest, and Israel, bereft of their counsel, follow wise or evil advices as a wayward fancy may dictate, and receive a corresponding recompense at the hands of their God. The children proved in no respect wiser or more obedient than their fathers. Again and again "they forsook the Lord and served the idols of the Canaanites, and in wrath He gave them up to their enemies." ...

— Mrs Whittelsey's Magazine for Mothers and Daughters - Volume 3 • Various

... in life, great straits, dark and too-long-continued providences, prayer unanswered, or not yet answered in the way we dictate, bad men and bad causes growing like a green bay tree, and good men and good work languishing and dying; these things, and many more things such as these, of which this world of faith and patience is full, prove quite too much for some men till they give themselves up to a state of ...

— Bunyan Characters (Second Series) • Alexander Whyte

... will presume to dictate to Almighty God how and by what means He shall communicate His grace to the heathen. It is enough, and very consoling, too, to know that all men receive sufficient grace to save their souls, and no one is eternally damned ...

— Grace, Actual and Habitual • Joseph Pohle

... can be seen what the governors there are, namely, that they are such as are preeminent in love and wisdom, and therefore desire the good of all, and from wisdom know how to provide for the realization of that good. Such governors do not domineer or dictate, but they minister and serve (to serve meaning to do good to others from a love of the good, and to minister meaning to see to it that the good is done); nor do they make themselves greater than others, ...

— Heaven and its Wonders and Hell • Emanuel Swedenborg

... increased to indignation. In order that my readers may not be ignorant of the extent of this tyrannical prejudice, I will as briefly as possible state the evidence, and leave them to judge of it, as their hearts and consciences may dictate. ...

— An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans • Lydia Maria Child

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