# expire
## English
### Alternative forms

* exspire (obsolete)

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɪkˈspaɪə(ɹ)/, /ɛkˈspaɪə(ɹ)/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
* Hyphenation: ex‧pire

### Verb

expire (third-person singular simple present expires, present participle expiring, simple past and past participle expired)
* (intransitive) To die.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:die
    The patient expired in hospital.
** 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CXIII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume VII, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC, page 415:And then, his head ſinking on his pillow, he expired; at about half an hour after ten.
** 1764 December 24 (indicated as 1765), Onuphrio Muralto, translated by William Marshal [pseudonyms; Horace Walpole], chapter V, in The Castle of Otranto, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Lownds […], →OCLC, pages 190–191:Hippolita, ſcarce more alive than her daughter, was regardleſs of every thing but her: but when the tender Iſabella’s care would have likewiſe removed her, while the ſurgeons examined Matilda’s wound, ſhe cried, remove me! never! never! I lived but in her, and will expire with her.
** 1833, R. J. Bertin, translated by Charles W. Chauncy, Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart, and Great Vessels, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blnachard, page 185:Soon the patient had no longer sufficient strength to sit up; the trunk of the body was inclined to the right side, the head high and thrown backward, the mouth wide open: she seemed to stifle rather than respire: lastly, speech and respiration failed her; she uttered, however, in a feeble voice, some incoherent words, said she felt she was dying, and, accordingly, expired the sixth day after entrance.
** 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168:People bled to death like gentlemen in an operating room or expired without comment in an oxygen tent.
* (intransitive) To lapse and become invalid.
    My library card will expire next week.
* (intransitive) To come to an end; to conclude.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 20:7:And when the thousand yeeres are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, […]
* (transitive, intransitive) To exhale; to breathe out.
    Antonym: inspire
** 1672, Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, Or, The Anatomy of Consumptions:Anatomy exhibits the lungs in a continual motion of inspiring and expiring air.
** 1717, John Dryden, Meleager and Atalanta:This chafed the boar; his nostrils flames expire.
** 1843, Loring Dudley Chapin, (Please provide the book title or journal name):Animals expire carbon and plants inspire it; plants expire oxygen and animals inspire it.
* (transitive) To give forth insensibly or gently, as a fluid or vapour; to emit in minute particles.
** 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:the expiring of cold out of the inward parts of the earth in winter
* (transitive) To bring to a close; to terminate.
** c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:Expire the term / Of a despised life.

#### Derived terms

* expirable
* expiration
* expiree
* expiry
* unexpire

#### Related terms

* inspire
* respiration
* respire
* spirit

#### Translations

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

### Further reading

* “expire”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* prexie

## French
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Verb

expire
* inflection of expirer:
** first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
** second-person singular imperative

### Anagrams

* expier

## Portuguese
### Verb

expire
* inflection of expirar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative

## Romanian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ekˈspire]

### Verb

expire
* third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of expira

## Spanish
### Verb

expire
* inflection of expirar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative