spend S1 W1 /spend/ BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle spent /spent/)
[ Date: 1100-1200 ; Origin: Partly from Latin expendere ( ⇨ ↑ expend ) and partly, later, from Old French despendre , from Latin dispendere 'to weigh out' ]
1 . MONEY [intransitive and transitive] to use your money to pay for goods or services:
I can’t afford to spend any more money this week.
spend £5/$10 etc
I only want to spend about $20.
spend something on something
More money should be spent on education.
spend something on somebody
Mum never spends any money on herself.
The repairs cost a lot, but it’s money well spent (=a sensible way of spending money) .
2 . TIME [transitive] to use time doing a particular thing or pass time in a particular place
spend time etc with somebody
I want to spend more time with my family.
spend time etc in/at something
We’ll have to spend the night in a hotel.
His childhood was spent in Brazil.
spend time etc doing something
Stacey spends all her free time painting.
3 .
a) spend the night with somebody to stay for the night and have sex with someone
b) spend the night (at something) if someone spends the night at someone’s house, they sleep at that person’s house for a night:
She spent the night at a friend’s house.
4 . FORCE/EFFORT [transitive] to use effort or energy to do something:
I love to cook, but I don’t feel like spending the energy every evening.
5 . spend a penny British English spoken old-fashioned to ↑ urinate – used when you want to avoid saying this directly
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THESAURUS
▪ spend to use money to buy things:
I bought two skirts and a T-shirt and I only spent $50.
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How much do you spend a week on food?
▪ go through something ( also get through something British English ) to spend all of an amount of money over a period of time – used especially when saying that someone spends a lot of money:
I got through all my money in less than a month, and had to get my parents to send me more.
▪ go to great expense to spend a lot of money in order to do something, because you think it is important or special:
The party was wonderful – they had obviously gone to great expense.
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There’s no need to go to great expense.
▪ squander /ˈskwɒndə $ ˈskwɑːndər/ to waste money on unnecessary things, instead of saving it or using it carefully:
His son had squandered the family fortune on gambling and women.
▪ splash out British English informal to spend a lot of money on something you really want or will enjoy:
Let’s splash out on a bottle of champagne.
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People often splash out for Christmas and then regret it later.
▪ blow informal to spend a lot of money on something, especially on something that you do not really need:
Her husband blew all their savings on a new sports car.
▪ economize to spend less money:
We’re trying to economize by eating at home instead of going out for meals.