expire
[ik-spahyuh r]
- to come to an end; terminate, as a contract, guarantee, or offer.
- to emit the last breath; die.
- to breathe out.
- to die out, as a fire.
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- to breathe out; emit (air) from the lungs.
- Archaic. to give off, emit, or eject.
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Origin of expire
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin ex(s)pīrāre to breathe out, equivalent to ex- ex-1 + spīrāre to breathe
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for expire
Contemporary Examples
Higher courts, including the Supreme Court had refused to intercede, and the stay was to expire tonight.
The Back Alley, Low Blow-Ridden Fight to Stop Gay Marriage in Florida Is Finally OverJay Michaelson
January 5, 2015
The temporary reduction of Social Security payroll taxes was allowed to expire in early 2013.
Those negotiations are set to expire at the end of November.
Advocates stress that vets would suffer if the program were to expire in September.
Patents, may I remind you, expire after 20 years, but copyrights to recordings can be enforced for a century or more.
Historical Examples
Or if some victim must expire, strike here, and I will thank thee.
ImogenWilliam Godwin
The corporal's leave did not expire till the evening of the following day.
A Nest of SpiesPierre Souvestre
He was hunted like a wild beast, till ready to expire with fatigue.
Fox's Book of MartyrsJohn Foxe
Rosseter's lease of the building was to expire in the following year.
Shakespearean PlayhousesJoseph Quincy Adams
Mr. Adams's term of service in the Senate was to expire on March 3, 1809.
John Quincy AdamsJohn. T. Morse
expire
- (intr) to finish or run out; cease; come to an end
- to breathe out (air); exhale
- (intr) to die
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Word Origin
C15: from Old French expirer, from Latin exspīrāre to breathe out, from spīrāre to breathe
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for expire
v.
c.1400, "to die," from Middle French expirer (12c.) "expire, elapse," from Latin expirare/exspirare "breathe out, breathe one's last, die," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + spirare "to breathe" (see spirit). "Die" is the older sense in English; that of "breathe out" is first attested 1580s. Of laws, patents, treaties, etc., mid-15c. Related: Expired; expiring.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
expire
(ĭk-spīr′)- To breathe one's last breath; die.
- To exhale.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.