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Spend vs Cost - What's the difference?

spend | cost |

As verbs the difference between spend and cost

is that spend is to pay out (money) while cost is to incur a charge; to require payment of a price.

As nouns the difference between spend and cost

is that spend is amount spent (during a period), expenditure while cost is manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.

spend

English

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.
  • Derived terms

    * spending money * spendthrift * spent force

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Amount spent (during a period), expenditure
  • I’m sorry, boss, but the advertising spend exceeded the budget again this month.
  • (pluralized) expenditures; money or pocket money.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , date = 2011-02-01 , first = Ami , last = Sedghi , title = Record breaking January transfers: find the spends by club , newspaper = The Guardian , url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/feb/01/january-transfer-spend-record-high-torres , passage = Total January spends by year }}
  • * {{quote-web
  • , year = 2011 , title = Council spending over £500 , site = Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council , url = http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/business_and_employment/tenders_and_contracts/council_spending_over_£500.aspx , accessdate = 2012-01-26 , passage = The spends have been made by our strategic partners ... }}
  • Discharged semen
  • Vaginal discharge
  • cost

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . Cognate with (etyl) (m), (etyl) dialectal . Related to (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.
  • at all costs (= "by all means")
  • Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
  • Derived terms
    * (l) * (l)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), from , see below.

    Noun

    (wikipedia cost) (en noun)
  • Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}
  • A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
  • Derived terms
    {{der3, appraisal cost , at cost , carbon cost , cost and freight , cost avoidance , cost-benefit , cost benefit analysis , cost center , cost control , cost cutting , cost-effective , cost-efficient , cost function , costless , costly , cost objective , cost of business, cost of doing business, cost of sales , cost of living , cost of money , cost overrun , cost per avalable seat mile , cost price , cost-push , design to cost , flotation cost , landed cost , low-cost , marginal cost , opportunity cost , private cost , sunk cost , unexpired cost , unit cost , variable cost}}

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), .

    Verb

    See Usage notes.
  • To incur a charge; to require payment of a price.
  • :
  • :
  • *
  • *:Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.
  • To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:though it cost me ten nights' watchings
  • (label) To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:to do him wanton rites, which cost them woe
  • To calculate or estimate a price.
  • :
  • Usage notes
    The past tense and past participle is cost'' in the sense of "this computer cost''' me £600", but ''costed'' in the sense of 'calculated', "the project was ' costed at $1 million."
    Derived terms
    * cost an arm and a leg * cost a pretty penny * cost the earth * how much does it cost

    Etymology 4

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A rib; a side.
  • * Ben Jonson
  • betwixt the costs of a ship
  • (heraldry) A cottise.
  • Statistics

    *