expendable
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ɪkˈspɛndəbəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
[edit]expendable (comparative more expendable, superlative most expendable)
- Able to be expended; not inexhaustible.
- Oil and other expendable resources are frequently the subject of military disputes.
- Designed for a single use; not reusable.
- The anti-aircraft rocket is fired from an expendable launch platform.
- Not essential or mandatory in order to achieve a goal.
- The research department was deemed expendable, and its funding was not renewed.
- Regarded as not worth preserving or saving; able to be sacrificed.
- In the internecine rivalries of large corporations, whole departments may become expendable in the execution of one executive's power play.
- 1997, G. Cajetan Luna, Youths Living with HIV: Self-Evident Truths, page 10:
- He was expendable, like commodities past their use.
Synonyms
[edit]- (not inexhaustible): exhaustible, finite, limited
- (not reusable): dispensable, disposable, throwaway
- (not essential or mandatory): adjunct, dispensable, redundant, superfluous
- (not worth saving or preserving): collateral, inconsiderable, sacrificable, worthless
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]able to be expended
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designed for a single use
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not essential or mandatory
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not worth preserving or saving
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Noun
[edit]expendable (plural expendables)
- An expendable person or object; usually used in the plural.
- Private Johnson was afraid the Lieutenant considered him an expendable, since he was always picked as point man.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]expendable person or object
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