Spend (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spent (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Spending.] [AS. spendan (in comp.), fr. L. expendere or dispendere to weigh out, to expend, dispense. See Pendant, and cf. Dispend, Expend, Spence, Spencer.]

1.

To weigh or lay out; to dispose of; to part with; as, to spend money for clothing.

Spend thou that in the town. Shak.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? Isa. lv. 2.

2.

To bestow; to employ; -- often with on or upon.

I . . . am never loath To spend my judgment. Herbert.

3.

To consume; to waste; to squander; to exhaust; as, to spend an estate in gaming or other vices.

4.

To pass, as time; to suffer to pass away; as, to spend a day idly; to spend winter abroad.

We spend our years as a tale that is told. Ps. xc. 9.

5.

To exhaust of force or strength; to waste; to wear away; as, the violence of the waves was spent.

Their bodies spent with long labor and thirst. Knolles.

 

© Webster 1913.


Spend (?), v. i.

1.

To expend money or any other possession; to consume, use, waste, or part with, anything; as, he who gets easily spends freely.

He spends as a person who knows that he must come to a reckoning. South.

2.

To waste or wear away; to be consumed; to lose force or strength; to vanish; as, energy spends in the using of it.

The sound spendeth and is dissipated in the open air. Bacon.

3.

To be diffused; to spread.

The vines that they use for wine are so often cut, that their sap spendeth into the grapes. Bacon.

4. Mining

To break ground; to continue working.

 

© Webster 1913.