Expendable
WordNet
adjective
(1) (used of funds) remaining after taxes
"Spendable income"
(2) Suitable to be expended
WiktionaryText
Adjective
- Able to be expended; not inexhaustible.
- Oil and other expendable resources are frequently the subject of military disputes.
- Designed for a single use; not reusable.
- The anti-aircraft rocket is fired from an expendable launch platform.
- Not essential or mandatory in order to achieve a goal.
- The research department was deemed expendable, and its funding was not renewed.
- That which is regarded as not worth preserving or saving; able to be sacrificed.
- In the internecine rivalries of large corporations, whole departments may become expendable in the execution of one executive's power play.
Synonyms
- (not inexhaustible): exhaustible, finite, limited
- (not reusable): dispensable, disposable, throwaway
- (not essential or mandatory): adjunct, dispensable, redundant, superfluous
- (not worth saving or preserving): collateral, inconsiderable, sacrificable, worthless
Noun
- An expendable person or object; usually used in the plural.
- Private Johnson was afraid the Lieutenant considered him an expendable, since he was always picked as point man.