at the expense of

English

Alternative forms

• at one's expense

Prepositional phrase

at the expense of

1. (finance) Paid for by an individual or group.
2. (by extension, idiomatic) At one's responsibility.
3. (figurative) In a way as to harm somebody or something; to the detriment of.
   • 1926, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, page 3:

     Bengali, like other Aryan languages of India, has spread, and is still spreading, at the expense of the aboriginal tongues.

4. (figurative) Of a joke, deriding someone.

Translations

paid for by an individual or group

• Arabic: عَلَى حِسَابِ (ʕalā ḥisābi), عَلَى نَفَقَةِ (ʕalā nafaqati)
• Azerbaijani: hesabına
• Galician: a conta de
• Polish: kosztem
• Portuguese: por conta de (pt)
• Spanish: a expensas de, a costa de (es)
• Swedish: på bekostnad av (sv)

in a way as to harm somebody or something

• Arabic: عَلَى حِسَابِ (ʕalā ḥisābi)
• Azerbaijani: hesabına, bahasına
• French: au détriment de (fr)
• Galician: a conta de
• Old English: tō dare (+ genitive)
• Polish: kosztem
• Portuguese: à custa de, às custas de
• Spanish: a costa de (es), a costo de, a cuenta de, a expensas de
• Swedish: till priset av, på bekostnad av (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked‌: "these were translations under "by taking away from" but unfortunately there's no such entry"

• Czech: na úkor (cs)
• Danish: på bekostning af (da)
• Dutch: ten koste van
• French: aux dépens de (fr), au préjudice de (fr), aux frais de, au détriment de (fr)
• German: auf Kosten (de) (+ genitive)
• Hungarian: rovására (hu)
• Italian: a spese di (it)
• Latvian: uz (kāda) rēķina (lv)