1. Plural of dispensatory; books or manuals that list and describe medicinal drugs, their preparation, and their uses.
Usage: historical; pharmaceutical; often capitalized when referring to specific official publications
2. Places or institutions where medicines are dispensed or distributed.
Usage: archaic; rare

Examples

• Medieval dispensatories served as essential references for physicians and apothecaries.
• The hospital maintained several dispensatories to ensure consistent drug preparation.
• Early modern dispensatories documented the properties of herbs and minerals used in medicine.
• Pharmacists consulted the official dispensatories when compounding prescriptions.
• The collection included rare dispensatories from the 16th and 17th centuries.