spend

American  

[spend] / spɛnd /

verb (used with object)

spent, spending

1. to pay out, disburse, or expend; dispose of (money, wealth, resources, etc.).

   resisting the temptation to spend one's money.

   Antonyms:

   keep, earn

2. to employ (labor, thought, words, time, etc.), as on some object or in some proceeding.

   Don't spend much time on it.

   Synonyms:

   devote, apply, use

3. to pass (time) in a particular manner, place, etc..

   We spent a few days in Baltimore.

4. to use up, consume, or exhaust.

   The storm had spent its fury.

5. to give (one's blood, life, etc.) for some cause.

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verb (used without object)

spent, spending

1. to spend money, energy, time, etc.

2. Obsolete. to be consumed or exhausted.

spend British  

/ spɛnd /

verb

1. to pay out (money, wealth, etc)

2. (tr) to concentrate (time, effort, thought, etc) upon an object, activity, etc

3. (tr) to pass (time) in a specific way, activity, place, etc

4. (tr) to use up completely

   the hurricane spent its force

5. (tr) to give up (one's blood, life, etc) in a cause

6. obsolete (intr) to be used up or exhausted

7. informal to urinate

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noun

1. an amount of money spent, esp regularly, or allocated to be spent

spend Idioms  

1. see pocket (spending) money.

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Related Words

Spend, disburse, expend, squander refer to paying out money. Spend is the general word: We spend more for living expenses now. Disburse implies expending from a specific source or sum to meet specific obligations, or paying in definite allotments: The treasurer has authority to disburse funds. Expend is more formal, and implies spending for some definite and (usually) sensible or worthy object: to expend most of one's salary on necessities. Squander suggests lavish, wasteful, or foolish expenditure: to squander a legacy.

Other Word Forms

• antispending adjective
• spendable adjective
• underspend verb
• unspending adjective

Etymology

Origin of spend

First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English spenden, continuing Old English -spendan (in āspendan, forspendan “to spend entirely or utterly”), from West Germanic, from Latin expendere “to pay out, spend, expend” ( expend ); compare German spenden

Example Sentences

Fresh surveys of consumers have found more higher-income Americans are starting to feel the pressure of a weaker labor market, which will likely lead to less spending and weaken the economy.

From MarketWatch

To work initially with Darren Star, and then spend the majority of the last 25 years with Michael Patrick King as my producing partner.

From Los Angeles Times

JOP spends most of his time throughout the day being filmed by a member of his team.

From Los Angeles Times

It’s there that the baleen filter feeders spend the summer gorging on tiny crustaceans from the muddy bottom of the Bering, Chuckchi and Beaufort seas, creating shallow pits or potholes in the process.

From Los Angeles Times

"I mean, do I spend too much of my time thinking about counterfeit products? No, I do not," he said.

From BBC

Related Words

• allocate
• concentrate
• consume
• contribute
• donate
• drop
• employ
• expend
• give
• invest
• put in
• settle
• use
• waste