spend
- 1To use up or pass time on a particular activity.
I spend most evenings reading by the fire.
They spent the whole afternoon arguing about money.
UsageFollowed by an -ing verb or on: spend an evening reading, spend hours on homework (not
incorrect: spend hours to read).Similarpass
- 2To pay out money in exchange for goods or services.
They spend most of their paycheck on rent and groceries.
He spent a small fortune renovating the old house.
UsageYou spend money on something or doing something: spend $20 on lunch, spent a fortune renovating the house.
- 3The total amount of money paid out over a given period; expenditure.
Marketing spend rose sharply in the final quarter.
Households reduced their spend during the recession.
UsageUsually after another noun, as in advertising spend or marketing spend, and most common in business writing.
Similarexpenditure, outlay, costs
- 4An individual sum of money paid out, or (in the plural) money for spending, such as pocket money.
Buying the van was our biggest spend of the year, but it has already paid for itself.
The children counted their spends before heading into the fair.
UsageEach payment counts separately: one big spend, several spends; the plural spends can also mean pocket money.
Note
Used countably for separate outlays, and in the plural for spending money. Ami Sedghi's 2011 headline invites readers to "find the spends by club," and Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council reports that "the spends have been made by our strategic partners."
- 5To use up completely or wear out through use, or to be used up in this way.
Soldiers spend their strength quickly in heavy fighting.
The waves spent themselves against the rocks.
UsageOften with itself/themselves or as spent: the waves spent themselves, her anger was spent.
Note
Exhaustion shows up mostly in the past participle: waves whose violence was spent, or the bodies in Richard Knolles's Generall Historie of the Turkes (1603), "spent with long labour and thirst." Unlike paying out money, nothing is handed over here; it is simply used up.
Less common meanings
- 6To bestow or apply effort, care, or attention on a person or task.
A good editor will spend real care on every page, even the ones no reviewer will read.
She spent her talents upon causes she believed in.
UsageWhat gets the effort follows on or upon: spend care on a pupil, effort on the hard parts.
Similarlavish, devote, bestow, expend
Oppositewithhold
Note
Here what is paid out is a faculty rather than money. George Herbert, in The Temple (1633), is "never loath / To spend my judgment." That gives the verb the sense of bestowing, of giving freely, which the money sense does not need.
- 7To squander; to use up wastefully.
UsageIn older writing the money or estate is spent in something (spend an estate in gambling); today squander says this more clearly.
Similarsquander, waste, dissipate
Oppositeconserve
Note
A dated use in which spending tips over into waste. To spend an estate in gambling is to throw it away, not merely to pay it out.
- 8To spread, or to become diffused into or through something.
The vines that they use for wine are so often cut, that their sap spendeth into the grapes.
1627, Francis [Bacon], Sylua SyluarumNote
Bacon's word for an outward spreading, close kin to the "use up" sense. In Sylva Sylvarum, published in 1627 after his death, he writes that vines are cut so often "that their sap spendeth into the grapes." The verb takes no object, and the preposition does the work: into names where the spreading ends up. Something is used up in one place by flowing into another.
- 9To reach orgasm; to ejaculate sexually.
Note
A dated sexual use, best read as period vocabulary rather than borrowed for today. It can stand alone or take an object, as in the fish spends his semen on eggs. The object frame shows its tie to paying out money: the body pays out what it holds. The nouns for discharged semen and vaginal fluid grow from this same use.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The sexual verb can occur with or without an object. en.wiktionary.org
- The fish example illustrates the transitive sexual sense. en.wiktionary.org
- The sexual sense has an established metaphorical connection with spending money. bu.edu
- 10In mining, to break ground, or to go on working an excavation.
- 11Semen that has been discharged.
- 12Fluid discharged from the vagina.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English 'spenden', from Old English 'spendan', from Proto-West Germanic '*spendōn', which was borrowed from Latin 'expendere' ('to weigh out'). It is a doublet of 'expend' and is related to Old High German 'spentōn' (source of German 'spenden', 'to donate') and Middle Dutch 'spenden'.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Spend descends through Middle English spenden from Old English spendan. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English spendan descends from Proto-West Germanic *spendōn, borrowed from Latin. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin expendere means to weigh out. en.wiktionary.org
- Spend and expend are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
- Spend is related to Old High German spentōn and Middle Dutch spenden. en.wiktionary.org
- German spenden descends from Old High German spentōn and means to donate. en.wiktionary.org