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Glite Dictionary
🛡️ To save from trouble ⏰ Extra or available 🙌 To give or allow 🔄 An extra thing 🙏 To not harm 💧 To use less 🪑 Simple or minimal 🎳 A bowling score
to spare

to spare

100 3.5
Decide not to hurt someone even though you could
  • verb
  • /spɛr/
: librar (a alguien) de
  • Why would he spare one of us?
  • spare someone's life
  • spare a woman

Examples

Synonyms

to save
vsto spare
∞ 1.0

Rescue someone or something from danger

chooses not to harm when able rather than actively rescuing
to protect
vsto spare
∞ 1.0

To keep someone or something safe from harm

chooses not to harm when able rather than actively guarding

Antonyms

to harm
500 1.0

To cause a bad effect on people or things

to injure
10 1.6

Cause harm to people or things, for example to a company's good name

Idioms

to spare no effort
2 3.9

Do everything possible to achieve something

energy to spare
1 3.5

More energy than you need for an activity

to spare someone's blushes
  • Informal
1 8.7

To avoid making someone feel embarrassed

Phrasal Verbs

to spare
56 3.7

More than you need, for example money or time

Compounds

spare time
64 1.0

Time when you are not working or busy and can choose what to do

spare change
34 1.0

Small coins or money you do not need and carry with you

spare part
  • Specialized
28 3.0

An extra item kept to replace a broken piece in a machine

spare tire
  • Offensive
1 4.9

Extra fat around the waist that looks like a round band

spare-time activity
1 2.5

An activity done in free time for fun or rest

How Harmful

to kill
  • NSFW
∞ 1.0
to injure
10 1.6
to hurt
∞ 1.0
to spare
100 3.5

Surface Forms

spare infinitive
spared past
spared past participle
sparing present participle
spares third person singular

Etymology

Spare in the sense of not harming someone is linked to 'save': to spare a life is to choose not to hurt or kill, to let that person be 'saved'.