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Cambridge Dictionary
dictionary.cambridge.org › dictionary › english › spend
SPEND | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
SPEND definition: 1. to give money as a payment for something: 2. to use time doing something or being somewhere…. Learn more.
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Plain English
plainenglish.com › home › expressions › spend time
Spend time | How to use it in English | Learn English expressions
November 21, 2024 - To 'spend time' is to dedicate time to a purpose. Think of it like "spending" money out of a budget. You have a limited amount of time, so you decide how to spend it, or how to dedicate your time.
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Quora
quora.com › Do-they-have-different-meanings-spend-time-and-spend-a-time
Do they have different meanings, 'spend time' and 'spend a time'? - Quora
Answer (1 of 2): To "spend time" is an idiom. Time doesn't have an article in front of it because it's a collective noun. And because it's an idiom, you shouldn't put something in the middle of it either, unless that something is a quantifier ...
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Longman
ldoceonline.com › dictionary › spend
spend | meaning of spend in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English | LDOCE
✗Don’t say: I don’t spend much for clothes. 2 time [transitive]SPEND TIME to use time doing a particular thing or pass time in a particular placespend time etc with somebody I want to spend more time with my family.spend time etc in/at something We’ll have to spend the night in a hotel.
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YourDictionary
yourdictionary.com › home › dictionary meanings › spend-time definition
Spend-time Definition & Meaning | YourDictionary
To dedicate time to an activity. These days, many people spend time surfing social networking sites.
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Collins Dictionary
collinsdictionary.com › dictionary › english › spend-time
SPEND TIME definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
When you spend money, you pay money for things that you want. [...] ... Time is what we measure in minutes, hours, days, and years.
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Thesaurus.com
thesaurus.com › browse › spend-time
49 Synonyms & Antonyms for SPEND TIME | Thesaurus.com
abide, affect, dally, frequent, get along with, haunt, have relations with, linger, live, loiter, reside, resort, roam, stand around, swell, tarry, waste time
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Wiktionary
en.wiktionary.org › wiki › spend_time
spend time - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Parents should spend more time with their children. [edit] take the time · [edit] dedicate time to an activity · accompany someone for leisure · [edit] pediments · Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=spend_time&oldid=87420874" Categories: English lemmas ·
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Collins Dictionary
collinsdictionary.com › dictionary › english › spend
SPEND definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
If you spend time or energy doing something, you use your time or effort doing it.
Published   March 26, 2018
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UsingEnglish.com
usingenglish.com › forums › learning english › ask a teacher › popular topics
Spend time doing something VS spend time to do something | UsingEnglish.com ESL Forum
January 14, 2009 - Click to expand... Both are correct but different in meaning. To spend time doing something means you use the time available to you for something. I spent a lot of time (at the station) seeing you. -- It means you were there and was seeing her in the meantime.
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Espresso English
espressoenglish.net › home › english tips blog › common errors in english: pass time / spend time
Common Errors in English: Pass Time / Spend Time - Espresso English
January 13, 2018 - Don’t say: “I pass a lot of time reading.” Say: “I spend a lot of time reading.” Use “spend time” to talk about the time you do an activity. The
Top answer
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1

The usages that you mention all work slightly differently. I can find no evidence for ‘have time doing something’, so my suspicion is that you cannot infer that particular usage by extension from others. Others are nevertheless interesting.

To spend time doing something

This usually carries the sense of having a finite amount of time available, and allocating some of it to this particular activity.

It can also mean taking care over a task: ‘spending time’ to make sure that something is done well, when one might simply have done a quick job. This would often be slight rephrased as ‘spending time on something’.

Your example ‘I spend too much time watching television’ is a good instance of the first of these.

To have a good time

This means something completely different. Here, ‘time’ means something like ‘experience’, accentuating the sense of a period that you spent doing something. In this usage, the period itself is not the main concern: what you are centrally talking about is the subjective experience. You can ‘have’ a good time, a boring time, a terrifying time, a confusing time, or many other kinds. The word ‘time’ ends up meaning that you can clearly distinguish this experience from what came before and after, and identify it as having had a certain character.

To have time doing something

I have never seen this construction anywhere, so it seems impossible to evaluate your speculation that ‘Have time doing something’ means ‘Spend time doing something’, although the latter is certainly a common expression.

Time to do something

This is similar to ‘spending time’, because it usually relates to the allocation of available time. It might be more common to hear someone say ‘I don’t have time [to do something]’, meaning that it would take too long, so other pressures mean that it cannot be done.

Then again, you can also say that it is time [to do something], meaning that the appropriate moment has arrived: it is time to catch the train, or to change one’s career.

To have time for [something or someone]

This is one that you have not mentioned, but it seems potentially connected. Sometimes this will mean exactly the same as having the time available to do something.

A completely different significance relates to patience or sympathy. If I say that I have time for someone, I am essentially saying that I like or respect them enough to give them my attention or support in some way, i.e. to allocate some of my finite time to them, rather than to something else. Symmetrically, to say ‘I have no time for [someone]’ is to dismiss that person as not being worth spending effort on.

I mention this to help show the range of expressions built on the idea of time as a measurable resource. I can find no evidence for your conjectural ‘have time doing something’, but many related variations certainly exist.

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The distinction you might be looking for is quantity versus quality.

Quantities of time are spent just like quantities of money are spent. So you can say:

I spent too much time watching television.

I spent too much money on cigarettes.

Qualities of time are had just like qualities of food are had. So you can say:

I had a good time.

I had a good lunch.

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LingQ Language Forums
forum.lingq.com › open forum in english
I spend time to do/doing/ on doing - Open Forum in English - LingQ Language Forums
December 2, 2021 - I spend my time to do something I spend my time doing something I spend my time on doing something Can you tell me which one is correct? Is the 1st sentence incorrect?
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Cooljugator
cooljugator.com › en › spend time
Spend time conjugation in English in all forms | CoolJugator.com
This verb can also mean the following: ... "Today I learned that it's hard to accept when somepony you like..." "...wants to spend time with somepony, who's not so nice."...