expenditure
(ɛkˈspɛndɪtjʊə(r))
[f. med.L. expendit-us, pa. pple. (irregularly formed after venditus) of expendĕre (see expend) + -ure.]
1. The action or practice of laying out, paying away, or spending (money). Const. of. at his own expenditure (nonce-use): at his own expense.
| 1769 Burke On late State Nation 15 Our expenditure purchased commerce and conquest. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. iv. ix, The collection and expenditure of the public revenue. 1873 Browning Red Cott. Nt.-cap 317 His shop..turned out the masterpiece..at his own expenditure. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. 364 Her [Elizabeth's] expenditure was..ever miserly. |
b. transf. The expending or laying out (of energy, labour, time): often with notion of waste.
| 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. i. v. (1865) 45 To grudge at the expenditure of moments. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt (1868) 30 He disliked all quarrelling as an unpleasant expenditure of energy. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic 54 After a vast expenditure of pains. 1890 Spectator 16 Aug., The Nationalist laity disobey with much expenditure of speech. |
c. The action or process of using up or consuming; consumption.
| 1812 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. IX. 141 We have made such an expenditure of engineers, that I can hardly wish for any body. 1855 Bain Senses & Int. ii. i. §11 A peculiar expenditure of the substance of the muscular mass. 1863 H. Spencer Princ. Biol. I. ii. v. §69 A mature animal, or one which has reached a balance between nutrition and expenditure. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6) I. xvi. 427 Its [the sun's] combustion would only cover 4600 years of expenditure. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. II. 194/2 The economical expenditure of ammunition. |
2. The amount expended from time to time.
| 1791 R. Rayment (title), The Income and Expenditure of Great Britain of the last 7 years. a 1800 Cowper Sparrows self-domesticated, A single doit would overpay The expenditure of every day. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 331 A loss of life and waste of expenditure. 1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 99 During the year 1860–61 the expenditure in these [mast-houses] amounted to [etc.]. |