spared
Americanadjective
-
left intact; not damaged, punished, destroyed, killed, etc..
After a seven-month siege they captured the city, and the spared captives were taken into exile.
After a brain injury in early childhood, language function is typically transferred to the spared hemisphere.
-
dispensed with or done without.
I finally obtained a little ready money by converting some easily spared articles of jewelry into cash.
-
used frugally or not used; withheld; not spent.
At no spared effort or expense, the enhanced design protocol has been applied to all the products in our new lineup.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of spared
First recorded in 1575–85; spare ( def. ) + -ed 2 ( def. ) for the adjective senses; spare ( def. ) + -ed 1 ( def. ) for the verb sense
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.
Appeared in the October 11, 2025, print edition as 'President Orders Spared Convicts a Lifetime of Torment'.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 11, 2025
Spared thanks to the efforts of his employer, Google, Alvin stumbles upon secret information that reveals suppressed details about the camps.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2025
Spared initially, small towns in rural Kansas were so overwhelmed that hospitals had to fly patients hundreds of miles away for treatment.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 9, 2023
Spared the acrimony and bitterness that has alienated neighbor from neighbor in other states, Vermont may have something else in short supply elsewhere: stamina.
From Salon • Feb. 1, 2022
How guileless, sweet, by gift divine, How beautiful, dear child, was thine— Spared all their grief of thee bereaven.
From Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume II. by Ingelow, Jean
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.