spend
UK/spɛnd//spɪnd/
spend verb: to pay out (money).
Verb
spend (third-person singular simple present spends, present participle spending, simple past and past participle spent)
- To pay out (money).
- I've already spent hundreds of dollars buying dog chow.
- He spends far more on gambling than he does on living proper.
- Synonyms:
- outlay
- To bestow; to employ; often with on or upon.
- I […] am never loath / To spend my judgment.[1633], George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis...
- To squander.
- to spend an estate in gambling
- To exhaust, to wear out.
- The violence of the waves was spent.
- their bodies spent with long labour and thirst1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC
- To consume, to use up (time).
- My sister usually spends her free time in nightclubs.
- We spent the winter in the south of France.
- To have an orgasm; to ejaculate sexually.
- The fish spends his semen on eggs which he finds floating and whose mother he has never seen.
- To waste or wear away; to be consumed.
- Energy spends in the using of it.
- The sound spendeth and is dissipated in the open air.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
- To be diffused; to spread.
- The vines that they use for wine are so often cut, that their sap spendeth into the grapes.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
- To break ground; to continue working.
Noun
spend (countable and uncountable, plural spends)
- Amount of money spent (during a period); expenditure.
- I’m sorry, boss, but the advertising spend exceeded the budget again this month.
- Expenditures; money or pocket money.
- Total January spends by year2011 February 1, Ami Sedghi, “Record breaking January transfers: find the spends by club”, in The Guardian
- The spends have been made by our strategic partners […]2011, “Council spending over £500”, in Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, archived from the original on 09 Apr 2012
- Discharged semen.
- Vaginal discharge.
spend meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
spend in Hindi
- to pay out
- ख़र्च करना xarc karnā
spend in Tamil
- செலவிடு
spend in Marathi
- to pay out
- खर्च करणे kharca karṇe
spend in Urdu
- to spend, pass, live out
- بتانا bitānā
More languagesFewer languages
- spend in Bengali
- ব্যয় bôy
- spend in Telugu
- వెచ్చించు vecciñcu, వ్యయించు vyayiñcu, వ్యయముచేయు vyayamucēyu, చిందు cindu
- spend in Malayalam
- ചെലവാക്കുക celavākkuka, ചെലവഴിക്കുക celavaḻikkuka
- spend in Kannada
- ಬಳಸು, ಕಳೆ, ಸವೆ, ಎಗರು
- spend in Punjabi
- ਨਿਬੇੜਨਾ nibeṛnā, ਲਾਉਣਾ lāuṇā
- spend in Gujarati
- ખરચવું kharacvũ
- spend in Odia
- କାଟିବା kāṭibā
- spend in Assamese
- খৰচ কৰ khoros kor, কটা kota
- spend in Nepali
- मास्नु māsnu, काट्नु kāṭnu
- spend in Tagalog
- gastusin
- spend in Arabic
- أَنْفَقَ ʔanfaqa, صَرَفَ ṣarafa, قَضَى qaḍā
- spend in Malay
- belanja
- spend in Indonesian
- mengeluarkan, membelanjakan
- spend in Persian
- سپنج کردن sepanj kardan
- spend in Thai
- จับจ่าย jàp-jàai, ใช้จ่าย chái-jàai, ใช้ chái
- spend in Vietnamese
- tiêu
Examples of spend in a sentence
- The politician gave a somewhat abstract answer when asked about their plans to cut spending.
- You're fun to spend time with, but I'm not that into you.
- I really need to get into the habit of writing down what I spend.
Synonyms of spend
Forms of spend
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | spends |
| present participle | spending |
| past participle | spent |
| past | spent |
| Noun | |
| plural | spends |
Origin of spend
From Middle English spenden, from Old English spendan (attested especially in compounds āspendan (“to spend”), forspendan (“to use up, consume”)), from Proto-West Germanic *spendōn (“to spend”), borrowed from Latin expendere (“to weigh out”). Doublet of expend. Cognate with Old High German spentōn (“to consume, use, spend”) (whence German spenden (“to donate, provide”)), Middle Dutch spenden (“to spend, dedicate”), Old Icelandic spenna (“to spend”).
Words formed from spend
- bespend
- don't spend it all at once
- don't spend it all in one place
- forespend
- forspend
- heartspent
- misspend
- nonspending
- outspend
- overspend
- respend
- spaving
- spendability
- spendable
- spendaholic
- spend-all
- spend a penny
- spendathon
- spendful
- spend good money after bad
- spendicitis
- spending money
- spendless
- spend money like water
- spendocracy
- spendocrat
- spendthrift
- spend time
- spendworthy
- spendy
- spent force
- superspend
- time spent laughing is time spent with the gods
- tokens get spent
- underspend
- unspend
Words that rhyme with spend
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- suspend
- trend
- ascend
- offend
- pretend
- unbend
- commend
- tend
- amend
- contend
- depend
- lend
- distend
- impend
- recommend
- rend
- shend
- subtend
- tight end
- upend
- wend
- append
- befriend
- blend
- pend
- resend
- transcend
- abend
- comprehend
- entend
- fend
- obtend
- perpend
- portend
- unfriend
- vend
- weekend
- when'd
- blende
- defriend
- disrecommend
- emend
- expend
- forfend
- forspend
- freakend
- genetic dead end
- heaven forfend
Questions about spend
- What does spend mean?
- Spend means to pay out (money).
- What is spend in Hindi?
- Spend in Hindi is ख़र्च करना (xarc karnā). See Spend meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is spend?
- Spend can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce spend?
- Spend is pronounced /spɛnd/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of spend?
- The past tense of spend is spent.
Words near spend in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spend (page history and authors); spend (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); بتانا (Urdu) (page history and authors); ব্যয় (Bengali) (page history and authors); చిందు (Telugu) (page history and authors); ചെലവഴിക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); spend (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਨਿਬੇੜਨਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ખરચવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); କାଟିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); काट्नु (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-spend.ogg.
Cite this entry: “spend.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spend. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.