Expendable example sentences
Related (13): disposable, replaceable, unnecessary, redundant, surplus, superfluous, nonessential, dispensable, worthless, invaluable, indispensable, essential, irreplaceable
"Expendable" Example Sentences
Common Phrases
- feel expendable
- treat someone as expendable
- expendable workforce
- expendable income
- expendable resources
- expendable staff
- make someone feel expendable
- expendable labor
- expendable parts
- expendable assets
Examples by Level
A1
- Some people are expendable, some are not.
- The toy was old and expendable, so he threw it away.
A2
- She felt expendable when her friends stopped calling her.
- The company treated temporary workers as expendable and paid them very little.
B1
- Nobody wants to feel expendable at their job, but it happens more often than people admit.
- The film's plot treated the minor characters as expendable — they existed only to move the story forward.
B2
- He'd spent years making himself indispensable, terrified that one mistake would make him expendable.
- The economic system treats certain workers as expendable, which is why they have so little job security.
C1
- What disturbed her most wasn't the betrayal itself, but the casual way he'd made her feel expendable.
- The corporation's philosophy reduced human labor to expendable resources, interchangeable and ultimately worthless.
C2
- There's a particular cruelty in being made to feel expendable by someone you've devoted yourself to — not dramatic, just quietly devastating.
- The machinery of bureaucracy had long since rendered them expendable, though no one had bothered to tell them until the letter arrived.
Examples by Scenario
🏠 Everyday Life
- My old phone finally died, but honestly it felt expendable anyway — I'd already moved on to the new one.
- The kids treat their toys as expendable, breaking them and moving on without a second thought.
💼 Workplace
- After the restructuring, half the team realized they were expendable — it was brutal to watch.
- The manager made it clear that nobody was indispensable, everyone was expendable if the numbers didn't add up.
📊 Business
- The startup's early employees discovered they were expendable once the company got real funding and could hire people with better credentials.
- Treating your workforce as expendable might cut costs short-term, but it destroys company culture and innovation.
🛒 Buying / Shopping
- These cheap kitchen gadgets are designed to be expendable — they break after a few months and you just buy another.
- I'm not paying premium prices for something that's meant to be expendable and thrown away.
✈️ Travel
- The budget airline treated luggage allowances like everything else was expendable — you pay extra for everything.
- Traveling with expendable items only means you don't stress if something gets lost or damaged.
📚 Education
- The teacher explained that in nature, some organisms are expendable to the ecosystem's survival.
- Students shouldn't feel expendable in the classroom — every kid deserves to matter to their teacher.
❤️ Relationships
- When he started treating her feelings as expendable, she knew the relationship was already over.
- She'd never felt expendable to him until the moment he chose his career over their marriage.
📰 News / Politics
- The government's policies treated certain communities as expendable, which sparked outrage and protests.
- Journalists reported that the regime viewed political prisoners as expendable — disposable people.
💻 Technology
- The tech industry designs products to be expendable, forcing upgrades every few years whether you need them or not.
- Some argue that treating data as expendable is reckless, while others say it's just how the internet works.
📝 Formal Writing
- The study examined how corporations classify certain labor as expendable in their financial models.
- Regulations now require companies to justify why they consider certain positions expendable before implementing layoffs.