verb
adjective
-
used up or exhausted; consumed
-
(of a fish) exhausted by spawning
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of spent
First recorded in 1425–75, for the adjective
Explanation
If you're spent, you are completely worn out or exhausted. Almost everyone feels completely spent after climbing a mountain or running a marathon. When you're spent, you've used up your reserves of energy, and when a physical item is spent, it's outlived its usefulness. Spent fuel, for example, has been burned and can no longer power a machine, and a rocket might power a space shuttle until it's spent and falls away. The adjective spent comes from the verb spend, "to pay out," which has the Latin root expendere, "to pay down."
Vocabulary lists containing spent
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.
Together with colleagues including Farooq Azam, a microbiologist and professor emeritus at Scripps, Inman spent four years trying to overcome that limitation.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2026
They were reported quietly in August to PHP’s maintainers, who spent two months working with OpenAI and outside security researchers on a fix before releasing it publicly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2026
Leo has a special connection to the Andean country where he spent nearly two decades as a missionary, including eight years as a bishop.
From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2026
Her team said she spent many hours improving her debate skills.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 8, 2026
Most of my time, sleeping and waking, has been spent outside, in close contact with what we now call the environment, what my uncles used to call, simply, “the woods.”
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
