expendable

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
English expend
Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom
Proto-Italic *-ðlom
Proto-Italic *-ðlis
Latin -bilis
Latin -ābilis
Old French -ablebor.
Middle English -able
English -able
English expendable

    From expend + -able.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ɪkˈspɛndəbəl/
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)

    Adjective

    expendable (comparative more expendable, superlative most expendable)

    1. Able to be expended; not inexhaustible.
      Oil and other expendable resources are frequently the subject of military disputes.
    2. Designed for a single use; not reusable.
      The anti-aircraft rocket is fired from an expendable launch platform.
    3. Not essential or mandatory in order to achieve a goal.
      The research department was deemed expendable, and its funding was not renewed.
    4. Regarded as not worth preserving or saving; able to be sacrificed.
      In the internecine rivalries of large corporations, whole departments may become expendable in the execution of one executive's power play.
      • 1997, G. Cajetan Luna, Youths Living with HIV: Self-Evident Truths, page 10:
        He was expendable, like commodities past their use.
      • 2020 April 8, Howard Johnston, “East-ended? When the ECML was at risk”, in Rail, page 69:
        The Taunton-Minehead line (now managed by the West Somerset Railway) was considered much more expendable.

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    Translations

    Noun

    expendable (plural expendables)

    1. An expendable person or object; usually used in the plural.
      Private Johnson was afraid the Lieutenant considered him an expendable, since he was always picked as point man.

    Derived terms

    Translations

    This page is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.