Literary notes about expend (AI summary)
The word "expend" in literature reveals a remarkable versatility, extending far beyond its common usage as simply “to spend.” In classic narratives, authors employ it to denote the use of tangible resources, such as money or energy, as when characters discuss setting aside funds for education or clothing ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, thinkers like Montaigne and literary giants such as Pushkin and Kipling use the term to refer to the deliberate allocation of mental or emotional effort, suggesting that less verbosity might ‘pay off’ in deeper reflection or that gestures, even those as light as compliments, have their own kind of expenditure ([4], [5], [6]). Moreover, in contexts ranging from strategic military advice to philosophical musings on human conduct, “expend” is rendered as a symbol of commitment and even sacrifice, capturing both the virtues and the costs of engaging with life’s demands ([7], [8], [9]). This broad semantic field underscores the word's adaptability as writers navigate between the concrete and the abstract, thus enriching their narratives with layers of meaning ([10], [11], [12], [13]).
- “Do you believe you have still a certain amount of it to expend this evening?”
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Part of the remainder she was obliged to expend in winter clothing, leaving only a nominal sum for the whole inclement season at hand.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy - He advised me in his will to expend the money in completing my education.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - Yet I in idleness expend
— from Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin - Is it to say, the less we expend in words, we may pay so much the more in thinking?
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - The lama would throw a careless finger backward at the ridges, and the umbrella would expend itself in compliments.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling - These I accepted, but not to lay them up for myself for private use; not to squander them in pleasure, but to expend them on yourselves.
— from Anabasis by Xenophon - Can the Commander expend his hellish energy here without accumulating heavenly energy for his next term of blessedness?
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw - [Exit.] IAGO Thus do I ever make my fool my purse; For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane If I would time expend with such a snipe
— from Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare - If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.
— from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller - On that subject we could expend much talk!
— from Pan Tadeusz; or, The last foray in Lithuania by Adam Mickiewicz - It behoves her to comport herself as the mistress of the house, and expend her gifts of mind, as well as her talents as a manager.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo by Juliette Drouet and Louis Guimbaud - The females, discarding the latter luxury, are apt to expend their little
— from Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
