expense

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
expense/ɪkˈspens/

▶noun

• 1 the cost incurred in or required for something.

  ■ (expenses) costs incurred in the performance of a job or task.

• 2 something on which money must be spent.

▶verb offset (an item of expenditure) as an expense against taxable income.

■ informal charge to an expense account.

– phrases
at the expense of

• 1 paid for by.

• 2 to the detriment of.

– origin ME: from Anglo-Norman Fr., from late L. expensa (pecunia) ‘(money) spent’, from L. expendere (see expend).