NOUN (3)

1. an exemption from some rule or obligation;

2. a share that has been dispensed or distributed;

3. the act of dispensing (giving out in portions);

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Dispensation \Dis`pen*sa"tion\, n. [F. dispensation, L.
   dispensatio.]
   1. 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.
      [1913 Webster]

            To respect the dispensations of Providence. --Burke.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. That which is dispensed, dealt out, or appointed; that
      which is enjoined or bestowed; especially (Theol.), A
      system of principles, promises, and rules ordained and
      administered; scheme; economy; as, the Patriarchal,
      Mosaic, and Christian dispensations.
      [1913 Webster]

            Neither are God's methods or intentions different in
            his dispensations to each private man. --Rogers.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. 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.).
      [1913 Webster]

            A dispensation was obtained to enable Dr. Barrow to
            marry.                                --Ward.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

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

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

125 Moby Thesaurus words for "dispensation":
   OK, abandonment, abjuration, administration, admission, allowance,
   attenuation, blank check, broadcast, broadcasting, carte blanche,
   cession, charter, circumfusion, civil government, command function,
   consent, copyright, courtesy, creation, decision-making,
   diffraction, diffusion, dilution, direction, disbursal,
   disbursement, discipline, dispersal, dispersion, disposal,
   disposition, dissemination, dissipation, distribution, divergence,
   dole, doling, doling out, dumping, empery, empire, evaporation,
   executive function, expansion, favor, forgoing, form of government,
   forswearing, fragmentation, franchise, freedom, getting rid of,
   giving out, giving up, governance, government, grant, immunity,
   indulgence, issuance, kindness, leave, letting go, liberty,
   license, management, officiation, okay, oversight, passing around,
   patent, paying out, peppering, permission, permission to enter,
   political organization, polity, preservation, privilege,
   propagation, providence, publication, radiation, recantation,
   regime, regimen, regnancy, regulation, reign, release,
   relinquishment, renunciation, resignation, retraction, riddance,
   rule, sacrifice, scattering, scatterment, service, shotgun pattern,
   sovereignty, sowing, spattering, special favor, special permission,
   splay, spread, spreading, sprinkling, strewing, supervision,
   surrender, sway, swearing off, system of government, ticket,
   ticket of admission, visitations of providence, volatilization,
   vouchsafement, waiver, warrant, yielding



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Dispensation
   (Gr. oikonomia, "management," "economy"). (1.) The method or
   scheme according to which God carries out his purposes towards
   men is called a dispensation. There are usually reckoned three
   dispensations, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic or Jewish, and the
   Christian. (See COVENANT, Administration of.) These
   were so many stages in God's unfolding of his purpose of grace
   toward men. The word is not found with this meaning in
   Scripture.

     (2.) A commission to preach the gospel (1 Cor. 9:17; Eph.
   1:10; 3:2; Col. 1:25).

     Dispensations of Providence are providential events which
   affect men either in the way of mercy or of judgement.