expire

expire — verb

1. An official document, membership, or agreement that can only be used for a set p

1.verbintransitiveB1
Definition

An official document, membership, or agreement that can only be used for a set period expires when that period ends and can no longer serve its purpose.

Example

Ada's passport will expire next June, so she needs to renew it before her trip.

collocation: passport / visa / license expires

The gym membership expired last month, so Dewi cannot use the facilities anymore.

subject = membership / subscription

Common collocations
  • passport expires
  • license expires
  • visa expires
  • contract expires
  • membership expires
  • subscription expires
  • offer expires
  • warranty expires
  • lease expires
Synonyms
  • lapse

    more specific to insurance, legal rights, or memberships ending because payments stopped

  • run out

    informal; can apply to supplies or time, not just documents

  • end

    most general; does not carry the sense of legal validity

  • terminate

    more formal; can be transitive or intransitive, often used for contracts

Antonyms
  • renew

    to make something valid again for a new period

  • extend

    to make a period or deadline longer

Grammar Patterns

subject (document/contract/period) + expire

Usage Note

Subject is always a thing (document, membership, period, offer) — never a person. The word implies a fixed end date that was set in advance. Distinguish from sense 2, which applies to living beings.

Common Mistakes

My passport expired last year, so I can still use it for domestic flights.
My passport expired last year, so I can no longer use it for any travel.
An expired document is no longer valid; you cannot keep using it.
I expired my gym membership.
My gym membership expired.
'expire' is intransitive; you cannot expire something. The thing itself expires.

2. To stop living — a formal or literary word for 'die', often used to suggest a ca

2.verbintransitiveC1
Definition

To stop living — a formal or literary word for 'die', often used to suggest a calm, peaceful, or dignified passing.

Example

The old king expired peacefully in his sleep at the age of ninety-four.

formal / literary register — peaceful context

Family records show Lord Ashworth expired in the winter of 1842 after a long illness.

Common collocations
  • expired peacefully
  • expired in one's sleep
  • expired after an illness
Synonyms
  • die

    neutral, most common word; fits any context

  • pass away

    respectful and gentle; very common in modern English for people

  • perish

    formal or literary; often suggests a violent or untimely death

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

subject (person/animal) + expire

Usage Note

Restricted to formal writing, literature, historical accounts, or journalism. In everyday conversation, 'die' or 'pass away' is far more natural. The term carries a respectful or solemn tone and is almost never used for animals or in casual contexts.

Common Mistakes

My goldfish expired last night.
My goldfish died last night.
'expire' for pets or animals sounds unnatural and overly formal; use 'die' or 'pass away' for pets.
He expired in a car crash.
He died in a car crash.
'expire' suggests a gentle, natural end; for sudden or violent deaths, 'die' is more appropriate.

3. To push air out of your lungs; to breathe out — used mainly in medical, scientif

3.verbtransitive / intransitiveC1
Definition

To push air out of your lungs; to breathe out — used mainly in medical, scientific, or yoga contexts as a technical alternative to 'exhale'.

Example

The doctor asked the patient to expire slowly into a meter that measures lung capacity.

medical context: expire into [device]

The yoga teacher asked the class to expire all the air from their lungs.

transitive: expire + all the air

Common collocations
  • expire air
  • expire through the mouth
  • expire slowly
  • expire fully
Synonyms
  • exhale

    the standard, everyday word for breathing out

  • breathe out

    the most common and informal way to express this action

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

expire + air/breath (transitive)

subject + expire (intransitive: breathe out)

Usage Note

Much less common than 'exhale' or 'breathe out' in everyday English. The transitive form ('expire air' or 'expire breath') is particularly rare and mostly encountered in physiology textbooks or clinical instructions.

Common Mistakes

Please expire deeply before the next exercise.
Please exhale deeply before the next exercise.
'expire' as 'exhale' is very technical; 'exhale' is the natural choice in general contexts.
She expired through her mouth.
She breathed out through her mouth.
Without a medical or yoga setting, this sentence could be misunderstood as sense 2 (she died).

Word family

  • expiration
    nounB1
  • expiry
    nounB1
  • expired
    adjectiveB1
  • expiring
    adjectiveB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four words describe something finishing, but they differ in scope and connotation. 'Expire' is the most specific — it is used for things with a legally or officially set end date, such as passports, contracts, or memberships. 'Lapse' implies that something ends because of inaction or neglect (e.g., an insurance policy lapses when you stop paying premiums). 'Run out' is informal and broader: supplies, time, patience, or money can run out. 'End' is the most general word and can replace any of the others, though it lacks the precision of 'expire' for legal validity. For example: 'My visa expires next month' (specific end date), 'I let my gym membership lapse' (neglected to renew), 'We have run out of milk' (supply gone), 'The meeting ended at noon' (neutral finish).

expire ↗lapserun out ↗end

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • expire at midnight
  • expire on the date of
  • expire without renewal

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

From Latin 'exspirare' — 'ex-' meaning 'out' and 'spirare' meaning 'to breathe'. The original sense was simply 'to breathe out'. Over time, the word took on the meaning 'to breathe one's last breath' (i.e., to die), and from there it broadened to describe anything that reaches its natural end, especially things with a fixed duration. The three modern senses (validity ending, dying, and exhaling) all trace back to this core image of releasing breath.