Synonyms of expending

expending

verb

present participle of expend

1

as in spending

to hand over or use up in payment

redecoration will have to wait, since we've just expended our last dollar in buying the house

Synonyms & Similar Words

• spending
• paying
• giving
• disbursing
• outlaying
• laying out
• wasting
• dropping
• shelling out
• forking (over, out, or up)
• squandering
• raining
• lavishing
• dissipating
• blowing
• running through
• throwing away
• frittering (away)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• saving
• making
• acquiring
• earning
• procuring
• gaining
• securing
• realizing
• hoarding
• winning
• laying up
• caching
• garnering

2

as in consuming

to make complete use of

settlers had to be sure not to expend their supply of firewood before the end of the long winter

Synonyms & Similar Words

• spending
• consuming
• draining
• exhausting
• absorbing
• reducing
• depleting
• burning
• using
• eating
• wasting
• devouring
• decreasing
• emptying
• playing out
• using up
• drawing down
• running out of
• diminishing
• lowering
• weakening
• dwindling
• lessening
• sapping
• downsizing
• undermining
• bankrupting
• squandering
• impoverishing
• crippling
• cleaning (out)
• blowing
• disabling
• lavishing
• enfeebling
• debilitating
• dissipating
• abating
• guzzling
• de-escalating
• drying up
• misspending
• running through
• throwing away
• frittering (away)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• increasing
• replacing
• renewing
• enlarging
• enforcing
• reinforcing
• augmenting
• strengthening
• restoring
• repairing
• preserving
• rebuilding
• saving
• conserving
• reviving
• bolstering
• fortifying

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of expending

These capabilities reduce friction by giving workers more time to focus on meaningful, high-value work rather than constantly expending energy navigating systems and processes. — Jennifer Lee, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026

Removing spent flowers will prevent the plant from expending energy to form seed heads. — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 17 July 2026

The next Starliner flight will haul cargo to the ISS, expending one of the remaining Atlas Vs. — Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 7 July 2026

The Cubs have already moved Colin Rea, Ben Brown and Javier Assad into their rotation for extended stretches, expending almost all of their depth. — Patrick Mooney, New York Times, 17 June 2026

Smith receives limited federal grants, but battling the Education Department requires expending time, attention and money to a lawsuit rather than devoting those resources to student education. — Marie-Amelie George, The Conversation, 28 May 2026

Whether the lawsuit, filed for the city by the America First Policy Institute, is worth expending any of El Cajon’s time and resources on is far from clear. — Michael Smolens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 May 2026

Because what the Knicks are seeing right now is a player expending so much on one end that there may not be enough left on the other — and a coaching staff still searching for ways to pull him out of it before the games start to matter more. — Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 17 Mar. 2026

With one missile – particularly one outfitted with cluster munitions – Iran can send millions of Israelis into bomb shelters and cause Israel and the US to continue expending a finite supply of costly missile interceptors. — Jeremy Diamond, CNN Money, 12 Mar. 2026