spared
- 1Simple past and past participle of spare.
The new policy spared thousands of workers from layoffs.
The wildfire spared only a handful of buildings on the block.
Note
One regular -ed form does both jobs: the simple past (the storm spared the harbor) and the participle after have or be (the harbor has been spared). The passive is especially natural with the merciful senses, where the one shown mercy becomes the subject: the prisoners were spared. A from-phrase names what was escaped, as in spared from punishment.
Three of the prisoners were spared at the last moment.
The village had been spared from the worst of the flooding.
spared is a form of spare
spare, verb: To choose not to harm, kill, damage, or punish someone or something; to show mercy, or to leave something unharmed or unaffected. Full entry
- Spelling
- spare → spared: add -d
Use it in a sentence
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