expend Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb use up, consume fully
    use.
    • The legislature expended its time on school questions
  2. verb pay out
    drop; spend.
    • spend money

WordNet

Ex*pend" transitive verb
Etymology
L. expendere, expensum, to weigh out, pay out, lay out, lay out; ex out + pendere to weigh. See Poise, and cf. Spend.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Expended; present participle & verbal noun Expending
Definitions
  1. To lay out, apply, or employ in any way; to consume by use; to use up or distribute, either in payment or in donations; to spend; as, they expend money for food or in charity; to expend time labor, and thought; to expend hay in feeding cattle, oil in a lamp, water in mechanical operations.
    If my death might make this island happy . . . I would expend it with all willingness. Shak.
Ex*pend" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To be laid out, used, or consumed.
  2. To pay out or disburse money.
    They go elsewhere to enjoy and to expend. Macaulay
    .

Webster 1913