expend

verb

ex·pend | \ ik-ˈspend

expended; expending; expends

Definition of expend

transitive verb

1 : to pay out : spend the social services upon which public revenue is expended— J. A. Hobson

2 : to make use of for a specific purpose : utilize projects on which they expended great energy also : use up

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Examples of expend in a Sentence

Are we willing to expend the time and resources required to solve the problem? redecoration will have to wait, since we've just expended our last dollar in buying the house

Recent Examples on the Web

All of that, though, was just the buildup, a way of expending the nervous energy of anticipation before kickoff arrived. — Rory Smith, New York Times, "Four Countries. Two Games. One Goal.," 12 July 2018 Our bodies expend less energy running on a treadmill than running outdoors. — NBC News, "What you need to know before running outdoors," 9 May 2018 Amazon’s decision leaves a group of cities that expended months of resources and time without a clear reward. — Keiko Morris, WSJ, "Amazon Picks New York City, Northern Virginia for Its HQ2 Locations," 13 Nov. 2018 There is no candidate in the country for whom Sen. Bernie Sanders has expended more political capital this year than Pete D’Alessandro. — Chris Stirewalt, Fox News, "There's more to primary day than California," 4 June 2018 The amount of computing effort expended by miners, known as the hash rate, has started falling. — Steven Russolillo, WSJ, "Bitcoin Continues Steep Fall as Cryptocurrency Collapse Worsens," 26 Nov. 2018 His amendment—which can be found here in the Congressional record—reads as follows: None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be obligated or expended for the development of a beerbot or other robot bartender. — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, "A Senator Wants to End Funding for MIT's Beerbots," 31 Aug. 2018 According to Goldman, this inequality among worker ants actually benefits the community, ensuring that the digging gets done efficiently with minimal delays while expending the least amount of energy. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "We can learn the secrets of smooth traffic flow by watching fire ants," 20 Aug. 2018 Using independent actuators, motors and lightweight conformal structures, lithium ion battery powered FORTIS allows soldiers to carry 180 pounds up five flights of stairs while expending less energy. — Kris Osborn, Fox News, "Army prototypes new self-powering 'Iron Man' soldier suits," 6 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'expend.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.