spent

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of spend.

   The committee spent months reviewing the proposal.

   By dawn the soldiers had spent most of their ammunition.

   Note

   One form serves for both the past tense and the participle, so "they spent" and "they have spent" share a spelling. The participle also hardened into the "used up" adjective. Older texts need care, because two of spend's meanings are dated: to squander, and to reach sexual climax. In older writing, spent can carry either of those meanings where a modern reader expects money or time.

2. 2
   adjective

   Used up, drained, or exhausted, with nothing remaining to give.

   Like a battery drained until it can no longer power anything.

   By the end of the shift the nurse was utterly spent.

   The mechanic replaced the spent cartridge in the filter.

   Similarexhausted, depleted, consumed, finished, expended

   Oppositefresh, unused

   Note

   The general meaning that the narrower ones specialize: a fish after spawning, a law with nothing left to do, a conviction that has run its course. Typically it describes something that has given up its contents or force, as with a spent cartridge. Expended is the close synonym and keeps the sense of having been used. Finished is looser and says only that something is over.

3. 3
   adjectiveUK

   Of a criminal conviction, no longer needing to be disclosed in most situations, such as when applying for a job, once a set rehabilitation period has passed.

   Her conviction became spent after the statutory rehabilitation period ended.

   Most employers cannot ask about a spent conviction when hiring.

   Oppositeunspent

   Note

   British criminal law gives this word a precise trigger. Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, a conviction becomes spent once its rehabilitation period has passed. After that, it usually need not be disclosed, and the person is treated in most contexts as if it had never happened. Unlike the lapsed-statute meaning, here what has run its course is a person's record, not a law.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of a fish, depleted and worn out from the effort of spawning.

   Anglers often release spent salmon so they can recover their strength.

   After the spawning run the females were visibly spent.

   Similarexhausted

5. 5
   adjectiveUK

   Of legislation: no longer in force because all of its provisions have expired or been completed.

   The wartime measure is wholly spent and now has no legal effect.

   A spent enactment can be removed without changing the current law.

   Similarexpired, lapsed, obsolete

   Note

   Statute-book housekeeping is where this word works, chiefly in British law. An act whose provisions have all expired or been carried out still sits on the books doing nothing, until revision legislation clears it away. Keep it distinct from repealed: a spent law has stopped having effect on its own, while repeal is the formal act that removes it.

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