verb
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to spend; disburse
-
to consume or use up
Synonym Usage
See spend.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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expendsimple
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expendssimple
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have expendedperfect
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has expendedperfect
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am expendingprogressive
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are expendingprogressive
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is expendingprogressive
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have been expendingperfect progressive
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has been expendingperfect progressive
Past
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expendedsimple
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had expendedperfect
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was expendingprogressive
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were expendingprogressive
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had been expendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of expend
1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin expendere “to weigh out, lay out, pay”
Explanation
The verb expend means to use. If you expend all your energy raking the leaves, you may be too tired to play hockey afterwards. Better pace yourself — you'll never get all of the leaves on the ground, after all. The verb expend means to spend or pay out. You can expend money, but you can also expend things like good will and time. As a voter, you can vote for or against the city's plan to expend money on a new library building, but the city may be expending voter willingness to support the plan if the building goes over the budget. There is no point in building a library if they can't afford to buy books!
Vocabulary lists containing expend
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
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Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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pend, pens, List 1
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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.
The end goal: Expend the smallest amount of carbon.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 19, 2019
Play: Expend all that coffee-bean induced energy at Jefferson Park.
From Seattle Times • May 12, 2018
Expend Eternity upon its shows, Flung thee as freely as one rose Out of a summer's opulence,402 Over the Eden-barrier whence Thou art excluded.
From Browning's England A Study in English Influences in Browning by Clarke, Helen Archibald
Expend, eks-pend′, v.t. to lay out: to employ or consume in any way: to spend.—ns.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
On the next day he collected as much as on the first and came in to me and said, "Expend these moneys, O our lord, upon thy health."
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 14 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
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.
