spent

Spent is the past tense and past participle of the verb spend. It is also used as an adjective meaning already used up, exhausted, or no longer usable. In verb form, spent appears in perfect tenses: I have spent all my funds; they had spent weeks preparing. As an adjective, it often follows a linking verb: The budget is spent; the candles are spent; the time spent on the project was substantial. In everyday speech, spent can describe a person who is utterly exhausted: after the race, he was spent.

Common uses and contexts

- Money and time: spent money, time spent.

- Materials and objects: spent fuel (used nuclear fuel that no longer sustains a reaction), spent cartridges or casings (shells after firing).

- Industry and science: spent grain in brewing or distilling, spent yeast in fermentation, and other cases where a resource has been exhausted or discarded.

Etymology

The word comes from the verb spend, with the same root as related Germanic languages. The form spent is the historical past tense and past participle, not formed with -ed.

See also

Spend, spent fuel, spent cartridge, spent time, and the idiom or sense of being “spent” to describe exhausted energy or resources.