expensive

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   high in price or charging high prices

   expensive clothes

2. 2
   adj

   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 and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.

3. 3
   adj

   Taking a lot of system time or resources.

   an unnecessarily expensive choice of algorithm

4. 4
   adj

   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); […]

5. 5
   adj

   Having a high economy rate.

Etymology

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.