Expiring

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of coming to an end or reaching a limit can refer to the termination of validity
2. the process in which something ceases to have effect or usefulness often occurs after a specified period
3. a situation where a designated time frame is fulfilled, resulting in the loss of functionality or official status

Etymology: "Expiring" is the present participle of "expire," and its story starts with breath. The Latin verb "exspirare" combined "ex-," meaning "out," with "spirare," meaning "breathe," so to expire was literally to breathe out, and from there to die, since the last breath was the clearest sign of death. The same root gives us "spirit" and "inspire," which share that original image of air moving in and out of the body. The shift from breathing to ending happened gradually in Latin itself. Once the word meant dying, it could extend to anything that came to a close, and that is the sense English inherited through Middle French "expirer" in the Middle English period. A lease, a contract or a period of time could be said to expire, the same way a life did, by reaching its final moment.

Synonyms: terminating, ceasing, concluding, dying, fading

Antonyms: beginning, starting, commencing, initiating, reviving