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expose

UK/ɪkˈspəʊz/US/ɪkˈspoʊz/
verbB22 meaningsCommon in everyday speech and writing · #3,023 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: exposed, exposing, exposes

To expose is to pull the cover off something hidden so that everybody can see it. Expose the fraud, exposed the whole scheme, exposed to view.

In journalism it means revealing wrongdoing, and an exposé, with the accent, is the article that does it. It also means to leave something unprotected: exposed to the weather, exposed to risk, exposed wiring. In photography, exposure is how much light reaches the film or sensor. Note exposure in its medical sense, meaning dangerous cold, and exposed as an adjective meaning windswept and unsheltered.

Definitions of expose

  1. 1verbexposeTo reveal something hidden.B2

    “The article exposed a scheme that had run for a decade.”

    synonyms: uncover, reveal

  2. 2verbleaveTo leave something unprotected.B2

    “The roof was off and the whole floor was exposed to the rain.”

expose is an uncovering.

Also accepted in games: uncover, reveal

Where it comes from

Latin exponere is ex-, out, plus ponere, to place — to place out in the open. Expose, exposition and expound are the same verb, so an exposition is literally a putting out on display.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *tḱey-

  2. Latin

    expōnō — set forth

  3. Old French

    exposer — to lay open, set forth

  4. Middle English

    exposen

  5. English, today

    expose

Built from

  • poser · Old French — to lay, place

From Middle English exposen, from Old French exposer (“to lay open, set forth”), from Latin expōnō (“set forth”), with contamination from poser (“to lay, place”). a doublet of expone and expound (via Old French espondre (“to set forth, explain”)), from the same Latin term.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs

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Related words

the poser family

suppose

expose — used about once every 471 pages · #3,023 · point at the bar for the others

  • exposed