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Definition
A keyword: an important word to learn expense   Show phonetics
noun
1 [C,U] the money that you spend on something
You have to pay your own medical expenses.
He eventually found her the car she wanted, at great expense (= it cost him a lot of money).

2 at the expense of sth If you do one thing at the expense of another, doing the first thing harms the second thing.
He spent a lot of time at work, at the expense of his marriage.

3 at sb's expense

a If you do something at someone's expense, they pay for it.
We went on holiday at my father's expense.

b in order to make someone look stupid
Stop making jokes at my expense.

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