expense Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun amounts paid for goods and services that may be currently tax deductible (as opposed to capital expenditures)
    disbursal; disbursement.
  2. noun a detriment or sacrifice
    • at the expense of
  3. noun money spent to perform work and usually reimbursed by an employer
    • he kept a careful record of his expenses at the meeting
  4. verb reduce the estimated value of something
    write down; write off.
    • For tax purposes you can write off the laser printer

WordNet

Ex*pense" noun
Etymology
L. expensa (sc. pecunia), or expensum, fr. expensus, p. p. of expendere. See Expend.
Definitions
  1. A spending or consuming; disbursement; expenditure.
    Husband nature's riches from expense. Shak.
  2. That which is expended, laid out, or consumed; cost; outlay; charge; -- sometimes with the notion of loss or damage to those on whom the expense falls; as, the expenses of war; an expense of time.
    Courting popularity at his party's expense. Brougham.
  3. Loss. Obs. Shak.
    And moan the expense of many a vanished sight. Spenser.
    H. L. Scott.

Webster 1913