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:
Related: ‘I don’t begrudge them their money’: My husband and I have friends who spend, spend, spend.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 26, 2026
"I've seen people lose jobs, spend thousands of dollars a month on it."
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
The point of the date is to get to know the person better, not to attempt to impress them with how much you can afford to spend.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
Every week, Sumrall and Whitt spend hours lifting together, a stress release from the long hours of scouting opponents and running drills.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
She had waited so long for a farm of her own, she was bound and determined to spend that night on her own land.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
The real median annual income for households headed by someone 65 or older is close to $60,000, and the average older household spends roughly that amount annually.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
At the gym, she spends 10 minutes on a stair-climbing machine then 35 minutes using weights and machines to strengthen the thighs, hips and lower back.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Now, his son told members of Congress, Salgado Araujo’s wife spends those evenings visiting her husband’s grave at the cemetery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
It is just another Tuesday for Jones, a Chicago-area resident who calls himself The Profiler and spends hours daily wading through this kind of online sludge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Ever since the raid, he spends his time either staring at the wall or crying.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
Javon Walton has spent much of his life performing under bright lights.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
I spent many years working with churches in West Germany and later in Germany, and I saw a very different attitude toward government assistance.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 26, 2026
Jeff Leu, 40, of San Francisco spent about $100 there on two figures modeled after his kids.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026
Bhengura moved to the U.S. and spent 18 years working toward becoming a legal resident, securing his green card in 2022.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
“I was hoping to spend tonight getting some of my homework done, but my mom decided my time was better spent here.”
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
That’s a precedent that is set up for spending.
From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2026
Tourism spending fell from a peak of $3 billion in 2023 to $2.6 billion 2025.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Dave Neil, who runs Sinclair Haulage which serves Sanday, Stronsay and Eday in Orkney, said his business was spending £400 a week more on diesel than it was before the summer.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
Oracle’s move to protect itself against delays at its New Mexico data center adds uncertainty for bondholders, though its spending commitments remain in place.
From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026
Drones, I have learned from spending time with Fly—my sample size of one—are prone to exaggeration.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
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.
