From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishspendspend1 /spend/ ●●● S1 W1 verb (past tense and past participle spent /spent/) 1 money [intransitive, transitive]SPEND MONEY 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).GrammarYou spend money on something: I don’t spend much on clothes. ✗Don’t say: I don’t spend much for clothes.2 time [transitive]SPEND TIME to use time doing a particular thing or pass time in a particular placespend 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 somebodySEX/HAVE SEX WITH 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 pennyTHESAURUSspend to use money to buy thingsI bought two skirts and a T-shirt and I only spent $50.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 moneyI 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 specialThe party was wonderful – they had obviously gone to great expense.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 enjoyLet’s splash out on a bottle of champagne.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 needHer husband blew all their savings on a new sports car.economize to spend less moneyWe’re trying to economize by eating at home instead of going out for meals. → See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
spend• I bought two skirts and a T-shirt and I only spent $50.• During the recession, even the tourists weren't spending.• We spent a lot of energy looking for a nice apartment.• Fay spent a year in Italy teaching English.• We spend about £85 a week on food.• At seventeen, he announces that he wants to spend his whole life in a ruined castle by the sea.• Dani spends hours on the phone.• Everyone spends more at Christmas - it's an important time for business.• The government has promised to spend more money on education.• All travelers apparently will be spending more time outdoors this summer.• She spends most of her salary on clothes.• Mom spent most of the weekend cleaning up the house.• Reagan and Gorbachev spent nine hours and forty-eight minutes in face-to-face negotiations.• Customers receive additional Clubcard points for every £2 spent on a Tesco Credit card.• Children are particularly at risk because of the amount of time they spend out of doors.• Now they spend quite a bit of their money, which is nice.• They spend quite a lot of money each week on eating out.• We spent the week in a dingy motel off Route 9.• He spent the whole morning reading the report.• A diabetic, she spent two days in the hospital last week when stress sent her blood pressure rocketing.• I never seem to have any time to spend with the children.money well spent• The $100 I used for my new shoes was money well spent.• A1.5 million when costs are determined, it may well consider the experience to have been money well spent.• At a time when resources are so scarce is this really money well spent?• But as far as producer Ilya Salkind was concerned, it was money well spent.• Experience in Newcastle suggests it could be money well spent.• Given the level of service and quality of the food though-especially the steaks-it's money well spent.• It might, however, be money well spent.• Regis benefited from a $ 100 million renovation five years ago, and it was money well spent.• They see money spent on political campaigns as money well spent.spend time etc doing something• But remember, the goal of making a date is to spend time together, not necessarily to spend money together.• Children who have spent time in adult facilities have a higher rate of recidivism than those who are treated as juveniles.• Likes to spend time online talking to friends and listening to music.• The men are free from child-care responsibilities and can spend time competing for power.• Those humans who are surviving most successfully, now spend time considering the welfare of other creatures.• Those were the days when musicians spent time in each place and got to know people in those towns.• We saw less and less of each other and fought like tigers when we did spend time together.• You don't not spend time on some one just because they aren't about any longer. spendspend2 noun [uncountable] the amount of money spent by a company, organization, or person on something – used especially in business I was just totting up our advertising spend in the last four or five weeks.From Longman Business Dictionaryspendspend1 /spend/ verb (past tense and past participle spent /spent/) [intransitive, transitive]1to use your money to buy or pay for thingsHow much do we have to spend?It is worth spending money on advertising.2to use or pass timeEffective managers spend time getting to know their workers.I have spent the past seven years working in industry.→ See Verb tablespendspend2 noun [uncountable] British EnglishACCOUNTING the amount of money spent by a company on a particular activity in a particular period of timeThey increased the marketing spend needed to launch the new brands.Origin spend (1100-1200) Partly from Latin expendere ( → EXPEND) and partly, later, from Old French despendre, from Latin dispendere “to weigh out” 