Definition of: expense

(ik·spens′) noun
1. The laying out or expending, as of money or other resources; expenditure.
2. Loss: at the expense of health.
3. Money expended; outlay.
4. Anything requiring expenditure. [<AF <LL expensa <expendere. See EXPEND.] Synonyms: cost, expenditure, outgo, outlay. The cost of a thing is whatever one surrenders or gives up for it, intentionally or unintentionally, or even unconsciously; expense is what is laid out by calculation or intention. We say, “He won his fame at the cost of his life”; “I know it to my cost”; we speak of a joke at another's expense; at another's cost would seem to make it a more serious matter. There is a tendency to use cost of what we pay for a possession, expense of what we pay for a service; we speak of the cost of goods, the expense of manufacture. Outlay is used of some definite expenditure, as for the purchase of supplies; outgo of a steady drain or of incidental expenses. See PRICE. Antonyms: gain, income, proceeds, product, profit, profits, receipt, receipts, return, returns.