(~s, ~ing, spent)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
When you ~ money, you pay money for things that you want.
By the end of the holiday I had spent all my money...
Businessmen ~ enormous amounts advertising their products...
Juventus have spent ?23m on new players...
The survey may cost at least ?100 but is money well spent.
VERB: V n, V n -ing, V amount/n on n, V-ed
~ing
Government ~ing is expected to fall.
= expenditure
N-UNCOUNT
2.
If you ~ time or energy doing something, you use your time or effort doing it.
Engineers ~ much time and energy developing brilliant solutions...
This energy could be much better spent taking some positive action.
VERB: V n -ing, V n -ing
3.
If you ~ a period of time in a place, you stay there for a period of time.
We spent the night in a hotel.
VERB: V n adv/prep
4.
The ~ on a particular thing is the amount of money that is spent on it, or will be spent. (BUSINESS)
...the marketing and advertising ~.
N-COUNT