0 present participle of dictate --
1 to give orders, or tell someone exactly what they must do, with total authority: --
[ + that ] I wanted to take a year off, but my financial situation dictated that I got a job.
The party's change of policy has been dictated by its need to win back younger voters.
[ + that ] The rules dictate that only running shoes must be worn on the track.
[ + question word ] He disagrees with the government dictating what children are taught in schools.
The UN will dictate the terms of troop withdrawal from the region.
2 to speak something aloud for a person or machine to record what is said, so that it can be written down: --
I am in no way dictating to others.
The nature of working memory is a complex issue, dictating caution in discussions of 'decline' in working memory capacity.
It is hard to see them as e controlling such processes, however, far less dictating their terms.
This parameter pins down the timescale of the process and hence can be interpreted as dictating the sampling frequency of our observations.
Instead of function dictating the evolution of structure, additional structure preceded enhanced function in hominid brains.
This is not just a simple case of material interests dictating political behavior, however.
This book has been written as a response to that development, and is meant to serve as a textbook, though without rigidly dictating course content.
After dictating the last word of the first sheet, the response sheets were collected, so that comparison of the two items was impossible.
