Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EX-PIRE, v.i.

1. To emit the last breath, as an animal; to die; to breathe the last.
2. To perish; to end; to fail or be destroyed; to come to nothing; to be frustrated. With the loss of battle all his hopes of empire expired.
3. To fly out; to be thrown out with force. [Unusual.] The ponderous hall expires. Dryden.
4. To come to an end; to cease; to terminate; to close or conclude, as a given period. A lease will expire on the first of May. The year expires on Monday. The contract will expire at Michaelmas. The days had not expired. When forty years had expired. Acts vi.