Expire

//ɪkˈspaɪə(ɹ)// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To die. intransitive

    "The patient expired in hospital."

  2. 2
    expel air wordnet
  3. 3
    To lapse and become invalid. intransitive

    "My library card will expire next week."

  4. 4
    pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life wordnet
  5. 5
    To come to an end; to conclude. intransitive

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

Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    lose validity wordnet
  2. 7
    To exhale; to breathe out. ambitransitive

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

  3. 8
    To give forth insensibly or gently, as a fluid or vapour; to emit in minute particles. transitive

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

  4. 9
    To bring to a close; to terminate. transitive

    "Expire the term / Of a despised life."

  5. 10
    To cause to lapse; to invalidate. transitive

    "The site expires cached pages that are older than 24 hours."

Example

More examples

"My driver's license will expire next week."

Etymology

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.