Definition
In legal usage, "expensive" means that which involves, requires, or occasions expense — that is, a financial outlay or cost. The term appears most often in evidentiary and procedural contexts (where a remedy, process, or course of action is characterized as burdensome or costly) and in equitable reasoning (where courts weigh whether a particular act or omission would expose a party to disproportionate expense).
The term carries no specialized technical meaning in law. Its legal force derives almost entirely from context: whether a method of service is "expensive," whether a remedy is "expensive and impractical," or whether a contractual obligation would impose "expensive" performance. Courts use the word descriptively rather than as a term of art.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Having a high price or cost; taking a lot of system time or resources; given to expending a lot of money.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Occasioning expense; calling for liberal outlay; costly; dear. Also, free in expending; extravagant; lavish.
The legal usage tracks the ordinary meaning closely — courts use "expensive" to mean costly or burdensome in financial terms, without the secondary sense of personal extravagance that Webster's flags. The gap is narrow but worth noting for historical research: in older sources, "expensive" could describe a person's character (a spendthrift or lavish individual) as readily as a cost or process. Legal documents almost never use it in this personal sense.
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Why It Matters in Research
"Expensive" is a descriptive adjective that appears in primary sources — opinions, pleadings, contracts, statutes — rather than as a headword in most legal dictionaries. Its research significance is therefore contextual rather than doctrinal.
In equity and remedies research, courts historically weighed whether specific performance, injunctive relief, or a particular procedural path would be unduly expensive as part of balancing hardship. The word signals reasoning about proportionality and practicality, not a formal legal test.
In tax law research, the distinction between "expensing" (an immediate deduction) and "capitalizing" (spreading a cost over time) is foundational. "Expensive" in a tax document is ordinary language; "expensing" is a term of art. Researchers working in the Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia should be careful not to conflate the two — a source describing equipment as "expensive" is not invoking Section 179 or any deduction rule; it is simply characterizing cost.
In historical Connecticut materials — Bouvier cites 31 Conn. 499 for the popular sense — "expensive" in 19th-century opinions often appeared in discussions of whether a particular legal process (such as foreign service of process or certain forms of discovery) was so costly as to be impractical or inequitable. Researchers consulting pre-20th-century state court records should expect the word to carry this procedural-equity flavor.
No jurisdictional variation is significant enough to treat "expensive" as a term with differing legal meanings across states. It remains an ordinary descriptive term throughout American legal usage.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's is unusually spare here, offering only: "In its popular sense, that which would involve or require expense," with a single Connecticut citation. This brevity is itself informative — Bouvier implicitly acknowledges that "expensive" has no independent legal definition distinct from its common meaning and that its legal significance is purely contextual.
No other standard historical legal dictionaries (Black's, Burrill, Wharton) elevated "expensive" to a standalone entry, which reinforces the conclusion that the term functions as ordinary language in legal texts rather than as a term of art requiring specialist definition. Researchers should not expect to find doctrinal guidance on the word itself; the doctrine lives in the underlying concepts (hardship, proportionality, deductibility) that the word describes.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Section 179 Expensing — The Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia
Deductions — Trade or Business Expenses — The Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia
Deductions — Educator Expenses — The Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia
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