spend

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spend / spend/ • v. (past and past part. spent / spent/ ) [tr.] pay out (money) in buying or hiring goods or services: the firm has spent $100,000 on hardware and software. ∎  pay out (money) for a particular person's benefit or for the improvement of something: the college spent $140 on each of its students. ∎  used to show the activity in which someone is engaged or the place where they are living over a period of time: she spent a lot of time traveling. ∎  use or give out the whole of; exhaust: she couldn't buy any more because she had already spent her money the initial surge of interest had spent itself.• n. inf. an amount of money paid for a particular purpose or over a particular period of time: the average spend at the cafe is about $10 a head.DERIVATIVES: spend·a·ble adj.spend·er n.

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