expensive

Having a high price or cost.

Adjective

  1. Having a high price or cost.
    • If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the ever more expensive and then universally known killing hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing...
    • In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property. - 2013 June 22, “The G8 summit: T time”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group,...

    Synonyms: costly high-priced pricey dear

    Antonyms: cheap inexpensive low-priced

  2. Taking a lot of system time or resources.
    • an unnecessarily expensive choice of algorithm
  3. Given to expending a lot of money; profligate, lavish.
    • […] And that he looked into his own affairs, and underſtood them; That he had, when abroad, been very expenſive; and contracted a large debt (for he made no ſecret of his affairs); […] - 1748, [Samuel Richardson],...
    • […] thus naturally generous and expenſive, he ſquandered away his money, and made a moſt ſplendid appearance upon the receipt of his quarterly appointment; […] - 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter XXV, in The Adventures...
  4. Having a high economy rate.

    Antonyms: economical

Origin

From Latin *expēnsīvus, from expendō (“to weigh out (money), to pay out”) (whence English expend). By surface analysis, expense + -ive. In the sense of "high-priced" has largely displaced dear.

Forms

more expensive most expensive expencive

Synonyms

5-star big-ticket chargeful cheap at half the price costful costly cost-prohibitive fancy dear dearthful dispendious ex expenny expensive exy high-cost lickpenny million-dollar high-priced princely out of sight overdear pricey ruinous

Antonyms

affordable attainable bargain budget cheap discount economical econo- inexpensive jitney low-end low-priced nickel value

Hypernyms

priced

Hyponyms

eye-watering high-end luxurious plush posh semiaffordable sumptuous unaffordable unattainable upmarket upscale overpriced overvalued superexpensive ultraexpensive

Related

expend expenditure expense overpriced $$$ an arm and a leg cost-conscious exorbitant exploitive no-frills give one's eye-teeth give one's left nut give one's right arm frugal good value inflationary miser miserly pay through the nose priced-off price gouging profligate pretty penny spendthrift

Derived

expenny expensive drunk expensively expensiveness inexpensive it's too expensive nonexpensive spenno spenny spensive 'spensive superexpensive ultraexpensive unexpensive