spare
Americanverb (used with object)
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to refrain from harming or destroying; leave uninjured; forbear to punish, hurt, or destroy.
to spare one's enemy.
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to deal gently or leniently with; show consideration for.
His harsh criticism spared no one.
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to save from strain, discomfort, embarrassment, or the like, or from a particular cause of it: to spare her needless embarrassment.
to spare him the bother;
to spare her needless embarrassment.
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to refrain from, forbear, omit, or withhold, as action or speech.
Spare us the gory details.
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to refrain from employing, as some instrument or recourse.
to spare the rod.
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to set aside for a particular purpose.
to spare land for a garden.
- Synonyms:
- reserve
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to give or lend, as from a supply, especially without inconvenience or loss: Can you spare me a dollar till payday?
Can you spare a cup of sugar?
Can you spare me a dollar till payday?
-
to dispense with or do without.
We can't spare a single worker during the rush hour.
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to use economically or frugally; refrain from using up or wasting.
A walnut sundae, and don't spare the whipped cream!
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to have remaining as excess or surplus.
We can make the curtains and have a yard to spare.
verb (used without object)
-
to use economy; be frugal.
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to refrain from inflicting injury or punishment; exercise lenience or mercy.
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Obsolete. to refrain from action; forbear.
adjective
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kept in reserve, as for possible use.
a spare part.
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being in excess of present need; free for other use.
How do you like to relax in your spare time?
My travel adventures seem to soak up any spare cash I earn.
- Synonyms:
- extra
-
frugally restricted or meager, as a manner of living or a diet.
a spare regime.
-
lean or thin, as a person.
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scanty or scant, as in amount or fullness.
-
economical, moderate, or temperate, as persons; sparing.
noun
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a spare thing, part, etc., as an extra tire for emergency use.
-
Ceramics. an area at the top of a plaster mold for holding excess slip.
-
Bowling.
-
the knocking down of all the pins with two bowls.
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a score so made.
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verb
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(tr) to refrain from killing, punishing, harming, or injuring
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(tr) to release or relieve, as from pain, suffering, etc
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(tr) to refrain from using
spare the rod, spoil the child
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(tr) to be able to afford or give
I can't spare the time
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(usually passive) (esp of Providence) to allow to survive
I'll see you again next year if we are spared
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rare (intr) to act or live frugally
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rare (intr) to show mercy
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to exert oneself to the full
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more than is required
two minutes to spare
adjective
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(often immediately postpositive) in excess of what is needed; additional
are there any seats spare?
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able to be used when needed
a spare part
-
(of a person) thin and lean
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scanty or meagre
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slang (postpositive) upset, angry, or distracted (esp in the phrase go spare )
noun
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a duplicate kept as a replacement in case of damage or loss
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a spare tyre
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tenpin bowling
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the act of knocking down all the pins with the two bowls of a single frame
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the score thus made Compare strike
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Synonym Usage
See thin.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sparesimple
-
sparessimple
-
have sparedperfect
-
has sparedperfect
-
am sparingprogressive
-
are sparingprogressive
-
is sparingprogressive
-
have been sparingperfect progressive
-
has been sparingperfect progressive
Past
-
sparedsimple
-
had sparedperfect
-
was sparingprogressive
-
were sparingprogressive
-
had been sparingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of spare
First recorded before 900; (verb) Middle English sparen, Old English sparian; cognate with Dutch, German sparen, Old Norse spara; (noun and adjective) Middle English; compare Old English spær “sparing, frugal” (cognate with Old High German spar, Old Norse sparr
Explanation
Spare describes something that is extra. If you have a spare tire for your bike you can replace a flat, and if there's enough change in your pocket you can spare some to patch a friend's tire. As a noun, a verb, and an adjective, the word spare has many meanings. A leftover part is a spare, you can spare a life when you save an animal or person, and you have spare time when you finish a project early. If you "spare no expense" you spend lots of money and when you spare a friend's feelings, you keep upsetting details to yourself. And if you have a moment to spare, you have time to share.
Vocabulary lists containing spare
Vocabulary from the Introduction to "Reality is Broken" by Jane McGonigal
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'Tis A Gift To Be Simple: Words For National Simplicity Day
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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:
Bairstow, who made 136 from 92 balls, fell just before the end but Stokes remained and thumped the winning boundary to take the home side to victory with 22 overs to spare.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
Dr. David Presser, an emergency medicine physician, wrote a letter urging the district to spare Silverado.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Blume has floated the possibility of VW's European plants making the company's Chinese-designed cars to use up spare capacity and also said that production for defence contractors could be an option.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
Central-bank officials say that scads of spare capacity are prevalent in the economy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
But Mr. Hardy had started fixing up the spare room just in case she changed her mind.
From "Mystery Map (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #3)" by Franklin W. Dixon
The pope will arrive by helicopter, a diplomatic subtlety that spares him from landing on French soil without actually visiting France.
From Barron's ● Mar. 25, 2026
It spares the host from managing a revolving door of goodbyes, avoids disrupting the natural energy of the event and doesn’t encourage others to leave simply because they see you heading for the door.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
The move spares the concerts-and-ticketing giant from the threat of its business being broken up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
She said the court should hand down a “narrow” decision that spares her client.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2026
“If god spares Beth, I’ll try to love and serve Him all my life,” answered Jo, with equal fervor.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Some, I’ve looked at them, and I saw that I want to put more things on the front too,” he continues, looking specifically at one of the sparer pieces near the front of the gallery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025
During Hailstork’s piece — structured as a Black American history lesson given by a character named Toil — I felt that some sparer moments were less than ideally balanced in the auditorium.
From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2023
Both Churchill and Zelenskyy inspired with their rhetoric, though Churchill’s words were more grandiose, while the Ukrainian leader’s message is sparer and more direct.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 23, 2022
The collection and staging were sparer and less eccentric than his usual fare.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 22, 2019
His voice, less arbitrary, had new depths of questioning, his mouth was more repressed, his face notably sparer of flesh.
From Linda Condon by Hergesheimer, Joseph
He’s known to demand only the sparest detail in his briefings, and his workdays frequently include hours watching cable news and posting on Twitter.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 1, 2020
She painted that too, in one of her sparest and most modern pictures: a red hand and forearm lost in a sea of black, interrupted by a shaft of white suggesting an absent god.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2020
Inside each is only the sparest of personal belongings: pots, plates and cups, a bag or two of clothes and a plastic mat to sleep on.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 25, 2017
Ideally, they’ll have only the sparest of answers to cling to as they sort out the aftermath themselves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2017
They understood each other, using the sparest words.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Bellingham famously uttered the words "Who Else?" in the direction of England's fans when he spared them the embarrassment of defeat by Slovakia at Euro 2024.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
Lore Van Moll, 33, a Belgian woman visiting her parents in nearby Alfaix, said she felt fortunate that she was unharmed and that her family’s home had been spared.
From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026
“We are already in the midst of a declared emergency and every family we can keep from losing their home is a family spared the trauma and instability of homelessness.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
MILWAUKEE—A former Wisconsin state judge was spared prison on Wednesday after being convicted of obstructing federal agents seeking to arrest an immigrant who appeared in her courtroom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
Both of us were spared, in body at least, by the stone walls of our different imprisonments, and altered in spirit, in ways we’re struggling to understand.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
The tech giant said it had “never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly” as it lifted prices by as much as 25% on key items, while sparing increases for its signature iPhone.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
In justifying the repeal of its former rule, the SEC argued that repeal made negotiating settlements easier and cheaper — thus, sparing the SEC’s scarce resources.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
She says they were pitched as giving single people "access to a virtually infinite pool of strangers" and sparing them "from the possibility of rejection".
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has a pleasant surprise for dozens of New York City landlords: He is sparing them from his proposed rent freeze this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
“Okay, guys, be sparing with the ink, so everyone gets enough. Share. But don’t take too long either, or it might all dry all up.”
From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder
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.
