Verb

To include so that it no longer has separate existence; to overwhelm; to cause to disappear as if by swallowing up; to incorporate; to assimilate; to take in and use up.

* (rfdate) :

Dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.

* (rfdate) :

The large cities absorb the wealth and fashion.

(obsolete) To engulf, as in water; to swallow up.

*

To suck up; to drink in; to imbibe; as a sponge or as the lacteals of the body; to chemically take in.

(transitive, physics, chemistry) To take in energy and convert it, as

# (physics) in receiving a physical impact or vibration without recoil.

# (physics) in receiving sound energy without repercussion or echo.

# (physics) taking in radiant energy and converting it to a different form of energy, like heat.

Heat, light, and electricity are absorbed in the substances into which they pass.

To engross or engage wholly; to occupy fully; as, absorbed in study or in the pursuit of wealth.

To occupy or consume time.

Assimilate mentally.

(business) To assume or pay for as part of a commercial transaction.

To defray the costs.

To accept or purchase in quantity.

Verb

To pay out (money).

*

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= No hiding place , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.}}

To bestow; to employ; often with on'' or ''upon .

* (George Herbert) (1593-1633)

Iam never loath / To spend my judgment.

(label) To squander.

To exhaust, to wear out.

* (Richard Knolles) (1545-1610)

their bodies spent with long labour and thirst

To consume, to use up (time).

* 1661 , , The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond

During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant

*, chapter=13

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time.}}

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)

, title= Geothermal Energy , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame.}}

To have an orgasm; to ejaculate sexually.

(label) To waste or wear away; to be consumed.

* (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)

The sound spendeth and is dissipated in the open air.

To be diffused; to spread.

* (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)

The vines that they use for wine are so often cut, that their sap spendeth into the grapes.

(label) To break ground; to continue working.