Spend

Pronunciation

• IPA: /spÉ›nd/
• Rhymes: -É›nd

Origin

From Middle English spenden, from Old English *spendan (attested in compounds āspendan ("to spend"), forspendan ("to use up, consume")), from Proto-Germanic *spendaną, *spendōną ("to spend"), borrowed from Latin expendere ("to weigh out"). Cognate with Old High German spentōn ("to consume, use, spend") (whence German spenden ("to donate, provide")), Middle Dutch spenden ("to spend, dedicate"), Old Icelandic spenna ("to spend").

Full definition of spend

Verb

1. To pay out (money).
   He spends far more on gambling than he does on living proper.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 1, Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
• 2013-05-25, No hiding place, In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.
2. To bestow; to employ; often with on or upon.
• George Herbert (1593-1633)I...am never loath
  To spend my judgment.
3. (dated) To squander.
   to spend an estate in gambling
4. To exhaust, to wear out.
   The violence of the waves was spent.
• Richard Knolles (1545-1610)their bodies spent with long labour and thirst
5. To consume, to use up (time).
   My sister usually spends her free time in nightclubs.
   We spent the winter in the south of France.
• 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. HammondDuring the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant...
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 13, We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time.
• 2013, Henry Petroski, Geothermal Energy, Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame.
6. (dated, intransitive) To have an orgasm; to ejaculate sexually.
7. (intransitive) To waste or wear away; to be consumed.
   Energy spends in the using of it.
• Francis Bacon (1561-1626)The sound spendeth and is dissipated in the open air.
8. To be diffused; to spread.
• Francis Bacon (1561-1626)The vines that they use for wine are so often cut, that their sap spendeth into the grapes.
9. (mining) To break ground; to continue working.

Derived terms

Noun

1. Amount spent (during a period), expenditureI’m sorry, boss, but the advertising spend exceeded the budget again this month.
2. (pluralized) expenditures; money or pocket money.
3. Discharged semen

Anagrams

• pends