defray

What it means

1. transitiveTo pay or discharge (a debt, expense etc.); to meet (the cost of something).

   In order to help defray the substantial costs involved, they then raised revenue through taking advertisements.

   2010 December 9, Roy Greenslade, The Guardian

   3 more examples

   The expenses of the war, while in progress, were defrayed by executing rich men and confiscating their property.

   1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.29

   Investors, meanwhile, got back a fraction of their money. Some say Mr Meinl’s €100m bail, paid by a source in Liechtenstein, should be used to defray their losses.

   2009 July 30, ‘A Viennese grind’, The Economist

   With his legal maneuverings, Trump is showing that he also understands the implications of this election — one that could give him substantial powers as president to defray or dismiss many of the legal threats that he’s facing and to behave in office without future accountability.

   2024 February 5, Stephen Collinson, “Trump’s legal battles are at a critical moment with major implications for the 2024 election”, in CNN

   Synonyms: finance, fray, offset

2. archaictransitiveTo pay for (something).
3. obsoletetransitiveTo spend (money).

In a sentence

The expenses of the war, while in progress, were defrayed by executing rich men and confiscating their property.

1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.29

Where it comes from

1. Old Frenchfraier“to spend”
2. Frenchdéfrayer
3. Middle Frenchdesfrayer
4. Englishdefray

From Middle French desfrayer, French défrayer, from dé- + Old French fraier (“to spend”).