Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - spare

(spares, sparing, spared) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. You use spare to describe something that is the same as things that you are already using, but that you do not need yet and are keeping ready in case another one is needed. Don’t forget to take a few spare batteries... He could have taken a spare key... The wagons carried spare ammunition. ADJ: usu ADJ n • Spare is also a noun. Give me the trunk key and I’ll get the spare. N-COUNT 2. You use spare to describe something that is not being used by anyone, and is therefore available for someone to use. The spare bedroom is on the second floor... There was hardly a spare inch of space to be found. ADJ: usu ADJ n 3. If you have something such as time, money, or space to spare, you have some extra time, money, or space that you have not used or which you do not need. You got here with ninety seconds to spare... It’s not as if he has money to spare... VERB: only to-inf, V, V 4. If you spare time or another resource for a particular purpose, you make it available for that purpose. She said that she could only spare 35 minutes for our meeting... He suggested that his country could not spare the troops for such an operation. VERB: V n, V n 5. If a person or a place is spared, they are not harmed, even though other people or places have been. (LITERARY) We have lost everything, but thank God, our lives have been spared... VERB: usu passive, be V-ed 6. If you spare someone an unpleasant experience, you prevent them from suffering it. I wanted to spare Frances the embarrassment of discussing this subject... She’s just trying to spare Shawna’s feelings... VERB: V n n, V n 7. see also sparing 8. If you spare a thought for an unfortunate person, you make an effort to think sympathetically about them and their bad luck. Spare a thought for the nation’s shopkeepers–consumer sales slid again in May... PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n