expendable

Etymology

expend + -able

adj

1. Able to be expended; not inexhaustible.
   Oil and other expendable resources are frequently the subject of military disputes.
2. Designed for a single use; not reusable.
   The anti-aircraft rocket is fired from an expendable launch platform.
3. Not essential or mandatory in order to achieve a goal.
   The research department was deemed expendable, and its funding was not renewed.
4. Regarded as not worth preserving or saving; able to be sacrificed.
   In the internecine rivalries of large corporations, whole departments may become expendable in the execution of one executive's power play.
   The Taunton-Minehead line (now managed by the West Somerset Railway) was considered much more expendable. April 8 2020, Howard Johnston, “East-ended? When the ECML was at risk”, in Rail, page 69

noun

1. An expendable person or object; usually used in the plural.
   Private Johnson was afraid the Lieutenant considered him an expendable, since he was always picked as point man.