expend

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin expendō (“I weigh; I pay out”). Doublet of spend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspɛnd/, /ɛkˈspɛnd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnd

Verb

expend (third-person singular simple present expends, present participle expending, simple past and past participle expended)

1. (transitive) To consume, exhaust (some resource).
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     If my death might make this island happy […]
     I would expend it with all willingness.

   • 1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:

     So next day the hunting began. I did not know how to shoot, but I proceeded to learn. And when I had expended some thirty shells for three seals, I decided that the ammunition would be exhausted before I acquired the necessary knowledge. I had used eight shells for lighting fires before I hit upon the device of banking the embers with wet moss, and there remained not over a hundred shells in the box.

   • 1962 December, “Beyond the Channel: Switzerland: Federal Railways' progress”, in Modern Railways, page 416:

     To handle the unceasing traffic increase, immense sums of money are being expended in dealing with bottlenecks.

Conjugation

Conjugation of expend

infinitive	(to) expend
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	expend	expended
2nd-person singular	expend, expendest†	expended, expendedst†
3rd-person singular	expends, expendeth†	expended
plural	expend
subjunctive	expend	expended
imperative	expend	—
participles	expending	expended

^† Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

• expendable
• expender
• misexpend

Related terms

• expenditure
• expense
• expensive

Translations

to consume resources

Bulgarian: изразходвам (bg) (izrazhodvam) French: dépenser (fr) Galician: despender, gastar (gl), consumir (gl) Greek: Ancient: ἀναλίσκω (analískō) Hungarian: felhasznál (hu), elhasznál (hu), felél (hu), kimerít (hu) Ido: spensar (io) Italian: spendere (it) Japanese: 消耗する (しょうもうする, shōmō suru) Maori: whakapau, whakatange, whakaporo, whakapeto Swedish: förbruka (sv), lägga ner (sv)

to spend money

Bulgarian: харча (bg) (harča) Esperanto: elspezi (eo) French: dépenser (fr) Galician: despender, gastar (gl) Hungarian: költ (hu), fordít (hu), ráfordít (hu), kiad (hu) Ido: spensar (io) Italian: spendere (it) Spanish: expender (es), despender (es), despesar (es) (desus.)

See also

• expent