expire

Alternative forms

• exspire (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English expire, from Middle French expirer, from Latin exspīrō, exspīrāre, from ex- (“out”) + spīrō, spīrāre (“breathe, be alive”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspaɪə(ɹ)/, /ɛkˈspaɪə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: ex‧pire

Verb

expire (third-person singular simple present expires, present participle expiring, simple past and past participle expired)

1. (intransitive) To die.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:die

   The patient expired in hospital.

   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CXIII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume VII, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC, page 415:

     And then, his head ſinking on his pillow, he expired; at about half an hour after ten.

   • 1764 December 24 (indicated as 1765), Onuphrio Muralto, translated by William Marshal [pseudonyms; Horace Walpole], chapter V, in The Castle of Otranto, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Lownds […], →OCLC, pages 190–191:

     Hippolita, ſcarce more alive than her daughter, was regardleſs of every thing but her: but when the tender Iſabella’s care would have likewiſe removed her, while the ſurgeons examined Matilda’s wound, ſhe cried, remove me! never! never! I lived but in her, and will expire with her.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168:

     People bled to death like gentlemen in an operating room or expired without comment in an oxygen tent.

2. (intransitive) To lapse and become invalid.

   My library card will expire next week.

3. (intransitive) To come to an end; to conclude.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 20:7:

     And when the thousand yeeres are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, […]

4. (transitive, intransitive) To exhale; to breathe out.

   Antonym: inspire

   • 1672, Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, Or, The Anatomy of Consumptions:

     Anatomy exhibits the lungs in a continual motion of inspiring and expiring air.

   • 1717, John Dryden, Meleager and Atalanta:

     This chafed the boar; his nostrils flames expire.

   • 1843, Loring Dudley Chapin, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Animals expire carbon and plants inspire it; plants expire oxygen and animals inspire it.

5. (transitive) To give forth insensibly or gently, as a fluid or vapour; to emit in minute particles.
   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     the expiring of cold out of the inward parts of the earth in winter

6. (transitive) To bring to a close; to terminate.
   • 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, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     Expire the term / Of a despised life.

Further reading

• “expire”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• prexie

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

expire

1. inflection of expirer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

• expier

Verb

expire

1. inflection of expirar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ekˈspire]

Verb

expire

1. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of expira

Verb

expire

1. inflection of expirar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative