spend

[spend]

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.

verb (used without object)

spent, spending 

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

2. Obsolete.,  to be consumed or exhausted.

spend

/ 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

noun

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

Other Word Forms

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of spend¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of spend¹

Old English spendan, from Latin expendere; influenced also by Old French despendre to spend, from Latin dispendere; see _expend , _dispense

Idioms and Phrases

see pocket (spending) money.

Synonym Study

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.

Example Sentences

SocGen sees that as a positive for consumption, as this group accounts for roughly half of all retail spending.

Read more on MarketWatch

But he currently has no plans to spend the summers sleeping anywhere else.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

The fans are insane, and fortune favors, in the long term, those who spend rashly and can buy players who want to win.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Funding has yet to be fully approved for key contracts, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal that track the spending approval process.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Two years after the big gain, the Paxtons and their blind trust went on a 10-month real-estate buying binge, spending almost $3.5 million on residential properties in Florida, Oklahoma, Utah and Hawaii.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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