expendable

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.”

   “He was expendable, like commodities past their use.”

   “The Taunton-Minehead line (now managed by the West Somerset Railway) was considered much more expendable.”

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.”