Definition of "expire"

expire

/ɪkˈspaɪə(ɹ)/

verb
third-person singular simple present expires, present participle expiring, simple past and past participle expired
1. (intransitive) To die.
  Quotations
  And then, his head ſinking on his pillow, he expired; at about half an hour after ten.
  1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CXIII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume VII, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], page 415
  Soon the patient had no longer sufficient strength to sit up; the trunk of the body was inclined to the right side, the head high and thrown backward, the mouth wide open: she seemed to stifle rather than respire: lastly, speech and respiration failed her; she uttered, however, in a feeble voice, some incoherent words, said she felt she was dying, and, accordingly, expired the sixth day after entrance.
  1833, R. J. Bertin, translated by Charles W. Chauncy, Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart, and Great Vessels, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blnachard, page 185
  People bled to death like gentlemen in an operating room or expired without comment in an oxygen tent.
  1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, page 168
2. (intransitive) To lapse and become invalid.
3. (intransitive) To come to an end; to conclude.
  Quotations
  And when the thousand yeeres are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, […]
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Revelation 20:7
4. (transitive, intransitive) To exhale; to breathe out.
  Quotations
  Anatomy exhibits the lungs in a continual motion of inspiring and expiring air.
  1672, Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, Or, The Anatomy of Consumptions
  This chafed the boar; his nostrils flames expire.
  1717, John Dryden, Meleager and Atalanta
  Animals expire carbon and plants inspire it; plants expire oxygen and animals inspire it.
  1843, Loring Dudley Chapin, (Please provide the book title or journal name)
5. (transitive) To give forth insensibly or gently, as a fluid or vapour; to emit in minute particles.
  Quotations
  the expiring of cold out of the inward parts of the earth in winter
  1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]
6. (transitive) To bring to a close; to terminate.
  Quotations
  Expire the term / Of a despised life.
  c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iv]

Definition of "expire"

expire

verb

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