One way to hold it: the last breath going out. That is where the word starts — and English keeps the same picture for anything whose time runs out: a passport, a coupon, a term of office. Once the breath is out, the thing no longer holds.
From the word’s history
Expire is from Old French expirer, from Latin exspirare "breathe out, breathe one's last, die" (ex- "out" + spirare "to breathe"). The "die" sense is the oldest in English (c. 1400); the sense used of laws, patents and treaties coming to an end appears in the mid-15c., a figurative shift already present in Latin.
expire 來自古法語 expirer、拉丁語 exspirare「呼出、嚥下最後一口氣、死去」（ex-「出去」＋ spirare「呼吸」）。在英語裡「死去」是最早的意思（約 1400 年）；用在法律、專利、條約「到期」則出現在十五世紀中葉——這個引申在拉丁文裡就已經有了。
Etymonline (etymonline.com/word/expire)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料7 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
expireverb/ɪkˈspaɪə(ɹ)/
- 1
To die.
- The patient expired in hospital.
- And then, his head ſinking on his pillow, he expired; at about half an hour after ten.
- 2
To lapse and become invalid.
- My library card will expire next week.
- 3
To come to an end; to conclude.
- And when the thousand yeeres are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, […]
- 4
To exhale; to breathe out.
- Anatomy exhibits the lungs in a continual motion of inspiring and expiring air.
- This chafed the boar; his nostrils flames expire.
- 5
To give forth insensibly or gently, as a fluid or vapour; to emit in minute particles.
- the expiring of cold out of the inward parts of the earth in winter
- 6
To bring to a close; to terminate.
- Expire the term / Of a despised life.
- 7
computingengineeringmathematicsTo cause to lapse; to invalidate.
- The site expires cached pages that are older than 24 hours.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。