expendable

[ ik-spen-duh-buhl ]

adjective

1. capable of being expended.
2. (of an item of equipment or supply) consumed in use or not reusable.
3. considered to be not worth keeping or maintaining.
4. Military. (of personnel, equipment, or supplies) capable of being sacrificed in order to accomplish a military objective.

noun

1. Usually expendables. an expendable person or thing.

expendable

/ ɪkˈspɛndəbəl /

adjective

1. that may be expended or used up
2. not essential; not worth preserving
3. able to be sacrificed to achieve an objective, esp a military one

noun

1. something that is expendable

Derived Forms

• exˌpendaˈbility, noun

Other Words From

• ex·penda·bili·ty noun
• nonex·penda·ble adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of expendable¹

First recorded in 1795–1805; expend + -able

Example Sentences

The Air Force prefers “attritable” to “expendable,” but what makes a swarm work is that parts of it can be lost and the mission will still be completed.

From Popular-Science

The lives and futures of LGBTQ youth are not expendable, and it’s time that they stop being treated as such.

From Washington Blade

Drivers have no rights and there are in excess so expendable.

From TechCrunch

The Falcon 9 second stage is expendable, which is the space term for essentially just junk that’s discarded and eventually de-orbits and burns up on reentry.

From TechCrunch

The first is that they are expendable, both in terms of material cost and also because they do not risk the life of an on-board pilot to operate.

From Popular-Science

Because when it comes to The Expendables franchise, no plot is expendable.

From The Daily Beast

“They (critics of reform) think these people are expendable,” says Simpson.

From The Daily Beast

To put it bluntly: it often leads to making everything else a secondary—that is, expendable—issue.

From The Daily Beast

The real danger lies in the implication that the freedom and dignity of Jews in the diaspora is somewhat of an expendable asset.

From The Daily Beast

"As a result, he treats workers as expendable resources without taking into account their contributions," Stone writes.

From The Daily Beast

Government property is considered expendable or non-expendable depending upon its character.

From Project Gutenberg

Meanwhile I shall study your sales tapes concerning the non-expendable flitters.

From Project Gutenberg

From a practical standpoint, however, anything that James contracted for was expendable and of vital necessity.

From Project Gutenberg

He's taking the rap for another man because he knows that he is expendable and the other man isn't.

From Project Gutenberg

Furthermore, there seems to be some non-expendable items that can't be accounted for, a couple of major items among them.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• disposable
• superfluous
• unimportant