expire
Americanverb (used without object)
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to come to an end; terminate, as a contract, guarantee, or offer.
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to emit the last breath; die.
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to breathe out.
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to die out, as a fire.
verb (used with object)
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to breathe out; emit (air) from the lungs.
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Archaic. to give off, emit, or eject.
verb
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(intr) to finish or run out; cease; come to an end
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to breathe out (air); exhale
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(intr) to die
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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expiresimple
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expiressimple
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have expiredperfect
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has expiredperfect
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am expiringprogressive
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are expiringprogressive
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is expiringprogressive
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have been expiringperfect progressive
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has been expiringperfect progressive
Past
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expiredsimple
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had expiredperfect
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was expiringprogressive
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were expiringprogressive
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had been expiringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of expire
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin ex ( s ) pīrāre to breathe out, equivalent to ex- ex- 1 + spīrāre to breathe
Explanation
If something — like milk or a free shipping coupon — expires, it is no longer usable or valid. When you expire, you will be dead. The verb expire comes from the Latin expirare, meaning “breathe out,” and the modern use retains that ancient meaning. The expanded, and more commonly used, meaning of expire is that the breath has — literally or figuratively — departed. When you expire your breath, you breathe out; you exhale. Things with a limited shelf life sometimes offer an expiration date that lets you know when they will expire: yogurt, frozen burritos, and even contracts for temporary employment. But some things expire in their own time: life, love, and car batteries.
Vocabulary lists containing expire
"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
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Vocabulary from texts about wild animals
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for January 1–January 7, 2022
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The United States is set to make an announcement on tariffs later Thursday, the White House said, hours before President Donald Trump's 10-percent global duty is due to expire.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
"I meet too many people who retire and they are sitting around waiting to expire," he says.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Temporary U.S. tariffs implemented in February are due to expire Friday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Indeed, if demand for memory should ebb before supply contracts expire, those will likely be renegotiated or extended.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
“I’ll just expire if we don’t get all the way to State. Yes, I must go there myself. I must go to State.”
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
The immediate economic impacts of the tariffs are expected to be limited, as the new tariff rates are similar to the 10% global tariff that expires early Friday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Scaloni, 48, may be out of a job when his contract expires in December, but his message for the fans was don’t cry for me, Argentina.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Graham, a prominent foreign-policy hawk and close Trump ally, died unexpectedly over the weekend at 71, leaving McMaster responsible for appointing someone to serve until the senator's term expires in January.
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
Larry Ferazani, the NFL’s deputy general counsel for labor relations, says that it’s too soon to discuss possible changes after the current contract expires after the 2030 season.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
One god draws in the breath of life and rises; another god expires.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
The state, aware of the misconduct findings in Ohio, granted a temporary one that has since expired.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
But the law limits those tariffs to 150 days, and they expired Friday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
The vehicle’s registration turned out to be expired, Castronovo said, but the driver was allowed to leave without a citation after the officers searched his vehicle and found nothing incriminating.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
In 2025, Entresto alone generated annual sales of $7.7 billion, even though its sales had already fallen sharply in the fourth quarter after its patent expired in the United States in July of that year.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Did he know that his driver’s license had also expired, and the vehicle was uninsured as well?
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
The president has replaced expiring tariffs with a host of new ones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
But, with Vinicius a year away from his Real contract expiring, it is not simply a case of merely matching - or even slightly improving - his money if he was to leave this summer.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The recent exchange of fire threatens a 2022 truce that has held despite expiring.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
The federal government must adopt a new framework this year because the old rules, set in 2007, are expiring.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Liyana groaned, “Our feet are killing us. Also we're expiring from hunger. Isn't history better in small doses?”
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
