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
-
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
-
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:
He skewers Farage, vowing not to take £5 million gifts from crypto billionaires, and spend more time in Clacton than Washington.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
Earlier this month, Stormont officials were given legal powers to spend up to 95% of last year's funding, as a deadline passed without a budget.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
“When that’s done, come back, hang out by the pool. There’s no meetings. There’s nothing tomorrow. It’s truly a day off, so there’ll be a lot of time to get a chance to spend together.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
“If you don’t grow your infrastructure and your people spend their lives stuck in traffic, you know it’s a massive GDP loss.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
“Think about your life. How did you spend your best moments?”
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
The United States spends much more on actual medical care, Cohen said, in terms of curing illnesses — but much less on preventative care.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
Wang now spends his time trying to help other victims of similar spiels.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
The new live album spends most of the program alternating between the two poles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
He spends a lot of time outside gardening and working on his cars and can seemingly sense whenever a neighbor is having car trouble.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Camel spends his days hidden behind the trunks, lying on blankets that Walter and I arrange to cushion his ruined body from the floor.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
After years and years of failure and billions of pounds spent, Paris St-Germain finally won the Champions League in 2025.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Many residents spent the night sleeping on the street, fearing more deadly aftershocks or because their homes had sustained damage.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
In 2025 alone, the company spent $971.7 million on sales and marketing—56% of its revenue for the year and more than 15 times what it spent on operations and support.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
The son of a boxing manager and a teacher, he spent much of his childhood accompanying his father to downtown boxing gyms and the Olympic Auditorium.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
I could never remember that I was wearing long skirts now, and Betsie spent many evenings mending the rips I put in them when I moved too fast.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Cat said that while many teenagers shun spending time with their parents, she knows first-hand how lonely it is to not have your parents around.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Temperatures are expected to exceed 35C Wednesday in most of mainland Spain and could climb above 40C in parts of the northeast, posing health risks for those spending hours outdoors.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
The elevated spending has resulted in CoreWeave’s adjusted net losses increasing in recent quarters.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
He decided to come after spending the night safely with his family and overcoming the initial shock.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Penelope did not know for certain about the fancy shops, but given Lady Constance’s affinity for spending money, she felt it was a safe assumption.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
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.
