Meanings
present singular third person exspires · participle present exspiring · participle past exspired · past exspired
- obsoleteObsolete form of expire.
[…] yet ſeing the tyme of circumciſion is exſpired therfor in fants are not now to be ſealed (as you ſay) by baptiſme; for the exſpiring of the tyme is the repealing of the Law: […]
1609, The Character of the Beast: or The False Constitution of the Church. Discovered in Certayne Passages Betwixt Mr. R. Clifton & Iohn Smyth, […], page 353 more examples
[…] until the sev͛all dayes and tymes apoynted and agreed for the payment of the said Myse shalbe exspired, And lykewyse the dayes and tymes of the said Subsidie lately graunted to oʳ said Sov͛aigne Lorde and Lady be past and exspired; […]
1557, The Statutes of the Realm. […] , volume the fourth, published 1819, page 348[…] that if this Command were never repealed in the ſubstance of it, nor did ever exſpire by any other thing ſucceeding in its place, then it muſt needs be ſtill binding; for certainly, it was once, as obligatorie, proclaimed by the Law-giver himſelf, and was never ſince in its ſubſtance repealed, nor is it exſpired or found hurtful in its nature, but is as neceſſary now as then; […]
1676, James Durham, The Law Unsealed; or, A Practical Exposition of the Ten Commandments. With a Resolution of Several Momentous Questions and Cases of Conscience. […], 3rd edition, Edinburgh: […] Andrew Anderson, […], page 169The flanks of a broken-winded horse are a long time in drawing up or contracting, which shows the difficulty he feels in expelling the air from his lungs, or in exspiring; but when that is effected, the flanks drop suddenly, which shows that the air enters the lungs, or that the animal inspires with much greater ease than he exspires.
1820, James White, A Treatise on Veterinary Medicine, […], 12th edition, volumes I (Containing a Compendium of the Veterinary Art; or, An Accurate Description of the Diseases of the Horse, and the Mode of Treating Them; […]), London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; […], page 161
Origin
- Latinexspīrō
- Middle Englishexspire
- Englishexspire
From Middle English exspire, from Latin exspīrō.
More words from Middle English, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
exspire. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exspire
“exspire.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exspire. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “exspire,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exspire.
Source: exspire on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.