Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use expend in a sentence

22 example sentences · verb

Expend means to consume, exhaust (some resource). Example: “They expended a lot of shoe-leather in hunting down every lead.”

Examples of expend by meaning

verbTo consume, exhaust (some resource).

  • And when I had expended some thirty shells for three seals, I decided that the ammunition would be exhausted before I acquired the necessary knowledge.1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC
  • To handle the unceasing traffic increase, immense sums of money are being expended in dealing with bottlenecks.1962 December, “Beyond the Channel: Switzerland: Federal Railways' progress”, in Modern Railways, page 416

More sentences with expend

  • They expended a lot of shoe-leather in hunting down every lead.From the entry shoe-leather
  • He languidly waved his limp wrist, glad to see us, but not wanting to expend the energy to let us know that.From the entry languidly
  • Recent work on late antique Latin literature has expended much energy in attempts to define a period.2019, Philip Hardie, Classicism and Christianity in Late Antique Latin Poetry, University of California Press, page 223. From the entry late antique
  • On a global level, the potential adipocentric beneficial effects are expended into systemic effects.2015 August 3, Yue Wang, Feiruo Huang, “N-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Inflammation in Obesity: Local Effect and Systemic Benefit”…. From the entry adipocentric
  • In short, synergy is the consequence of the energy expended in creating order.2009, J.-C. Spender, “Organizational Knowledge, Collective Practice and Penrose Rents”, in Michael H. Zack, editor, Knowledge and…. From the entry synergy
  • Many millions of dollars are expended on drugs, diagnostic tests, and psychotherapies of a placebic nature.2005, Michael Palmer, Moral Problems in Medicine, page 135. From the entry placebic
  • How peculiarly unfortunate that I should have expended so much effort learning navigation and then have B.1903 May 10, Rupert Hughes, “Good Reading for Boys and Girls: The Cruise of the Lakerimmers”, in Clark Howell, editor, The Atlanta…. From the entry mysteriosity
  • You could say he's lucky to be alive — the bullet expended most of its energy before it hit him.2024, Lane Metcalf, To Set a Prisoner Free. From the entry stop a bullet
  • The coal is expended, where does it go? inside the iron to turn it into steel in real life.2011 February 10, Oventoaster, “Iron items to Steel”, in Minecraft Forum. From the entry cook
  • We have to get a better balance between our ingo and our outgo – calories consumed and calories expended.2010, Stephen W. Reiss, Family, Farming and Freedom: Fifty-Five Years of Writings by Irv Reiss, →ISBN. From the entry ingo
  • "Whenever Helen sleeps, her fevered rest meekens her; hence, she re-emerges enfeebled -- her strength, expended; her reserves, depleted."2001, Christian Bök, Eunoia. From the entry meeken
  • As incensed as the public gets at appallingly brutal killings–the ones that blow away innocents–police expend little sympathy on criminal-to-criminal mayhem.1989 May 14, Los Angeles Times, page 1. From the entry NHI
  • All moneys deposited in the honey fund shall, subject to legislative appropriation, be expended by the commissioner for use pursuant to this Act.1979, Laws Passed at the Session of the Legislative Assembly of North Dakota. From the entry honey fund
  • Exodus from Egypt means a departure from the thanatocracy where all our energies are expended on building the tombs of mummified eternal death.1978, Rosemary Radford Ruether, "Rich Nations/ Poor Nations: Towards a Just World Order in the Era of Neo-Colonialism", in Christian…. From the entry thanatocracy
  • El Aziz ordered him & sumptuous dress of honour and expended monies galore, giving unto each who had wroughten, after the measure of his work.1901, Oriental Tales: Tales from the Arabic ... done into English by John Payne, page 61. From the entry wroughten
  • It clearly meant a long-term lease but lawyers expended a certain amount of energy trying to relate emphyteusis to other categories of usufruct (ius in re aliena).1991, Paul Freedman, The Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 147. From the entry emphyteusis
  • If the series starts with a superburst, then often the rest of the series is weaker than usual, presumably because of the water and energy already expended.1989, GOSA Transactions: The Annual Journal of the Geyser Observation and Study Association, page 194. From the entry superburst
  • Manly marrow must be protected at all costs: expend it on kicky-wickies and you will not only lose your masculinity but very likely become somewhat kicky-wicky yourself.1986, James L. Calderwood, The Properties of Othello, →ISBN, page 77. From the entry kicky-wicky
  • Keep your dignity here even though other folk are expending any amount of piranhic energy implanting their ungloved lunch hooks into the property left by another.1975, James Patrick Donleavy, The unexpurgated code: a complete manual of survival and manners. From the entry ungloved
  • The balance of resources expended to keep children under five safe from vaccinable diseases is questioned, given the meager resources expended to improve the quality of life for child survivors.1996, Mark Nichter, “Vaccinations in the Third World”, in Anthropology and International Health: Asian Case Studies, page 333. From the entry vaccinable

Meaning of expend

  1. verb To consume, exhaust (some resource).

Full definition of expend

Questions about expend in a sentence

How do you use expend in a sentence?
Expend is used as a verb. For example: “They expended a lot of shoe-leather in hunting down every lead.”
What is a short sentence with expend?
“They expended a lot of shoe-leather in hunting down every lead.”
What does expend mean?
Expend means to consume, exhaust (some resource).

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: expend (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use expend in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/expend. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.