spend
Americanverb (used with object)
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spends,
present (3rd person singular)
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spent,
past participle, past
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spending
present participle
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to pay out, disburse, or expend; dispose of (money, wealth, resources, etc.).
resisting the temptation to spend one's money.
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to employ (labor, thought, words, time, etc.), as on some object or in some proceeding.
Don't spend much time on it.
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to pass (time) in a particular manner, place, etc..
We spent a few days in Baltimore.
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to use up, consume, or exhaust.
The storm had spent its fury.
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to give (one's blood, life, etc.) for some cause.
verb (used without object)
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spends,
present (3rd person singular)
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spent,
past participle, past
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spending
present participle
-
to spend money, energy, time, etc.
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Obsolete. to be consumed or exhausted.
verb
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to pay out (money, wealth, etc)
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(tr) to concentrate (time, effort, thought, etc) upon an object, activity, etc
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(tr) to pass (time) in a specific way, activity, place, etc
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(tr) to use up completely
the hurricane spent its force
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(tr) to give up (one's blood, life, etc) in a cause
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obsolete (intr) to be used up or exhausted
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informal to urinate
noun
Synonym Usage
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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spendsimple
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spendssimple
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have spentperfect
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has spentperfect
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am spendingprogressive
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are spendingprogressive
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is spendingprogressive
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have been spendingperfect progressive
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has been spendingperfect progressive
Past
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spentsimple
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had spentperfect
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was spendingprogressive
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were spendingprogressive
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had been spendingperfect progressive
Future
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” ( see expend); compare German spenden
Explanation
When you use money or time, you spend it. If you spend a lot of time at the mall, you'll probably also spend money there. The verb spend is good for talking about passing time on a particular activity or living in one place for a length of time: "He went on to spend years in India." When you spend money, you pay it in return for something, like when you spend five dollars on a bottle of water at the airport or spend your savings on a trip around the world. The Latin root expendere means "to weigh out money."
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:
Workers with health plans are expected to spend an average $5,297 this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Let me tell you, they’ll hire whatever it takes, and they’ll spend money like it’s going out of style to defend this case, because everything’s up for grabs.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026
And Paxton has noted that the expensive primary runoff left his coffers more depleted than those of Talarico, who could afford to spend the spring stockpiling his war chest after winning his March primary.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
The same goes for knowing to shop around for car insurance, understanding cash inflows and outflows so they don’t spend more than they earn, and choosing to invest money wisely to meet their goals.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
And he saw, now, that it was useless to spend one more moment wondering why she hadn’t loved him.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
Ricky Bobby spends the rest of his life attempting to follow in his father’s tire tracks, working his way up to be in the big show but not a star.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
That means an 18-year-old recruited from an EFL academy can still go on to qualify as club-trained if he spends the next three seasons with his new Premier League club.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
The average middle-income family spends about $29,325 on baby expenses annually for the first five years, according to a 2026 survey from LendingTree.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Paris Match described Macron's vacation as "work-focused," noting that an office has been set up and that "the president spends his days on the phone."
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Imagine you’ve got a heart that spends all day wanting more.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
Over that same time period, the Paxton campaign has spent $119,000 — nearly all of it on digital advertising — meaning that Talarico has essentially had the airwaves to himself.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
He says a mental reset over the summer break, which he spent with his fiancee, Carmen, and two friends, has helped him put a difficult first part of the season in perspective.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
The ideal kind of primary care model takes time, but it’s not really supported by insurance, which pays for quick visits and specific services—not time spent getting to know a patient’s health history.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026
Turtle and other scientists who have spent decades working on the mission will be on edge when it makes its two-hour descent to Titan’s surface in 2034.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
Indeed, Clare had spent many years in this season of life—er, undeath.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
There’s a hidden benefit to spending a vast sum of money to buy a pro sports team.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
And of course they have even more today, because they were so good at raising money and they weren’t spending very much.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026
Cruz started spending six figures a week on advertising in late July 2024, according to AdImpact data, and ramped up to a weekly seven-figure spend by late September.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
Others, however, expect the BOK to pause as it assesses the impact of the July hike and the weak recovery in consumer spending, before tightening again in October or November to curb price growth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Louella got paid fifty cents to do this, and on that particular Tuesday we were in the grocery store spending her fifty cents.
From "The Best School Year Ever" by Barbara Robinson
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.
