lift

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To direct or carry from a lower to a higher position; raise: lift one's eyes; lifted the suitcase.
2. v. To transport by air: The helicopter lifted the entire team to the meet.
3. v. To revoke by taking back; rescind: lifted the embargo.
4. v. To bring an end to (a blockade or siege) by removing forces.
5. v. To cease (artillery fire) in an area.
6. v. To raise in condition, rank, or esteem.
7. v. To uplift; elate: Your telephone call really lifted my spirits.
8. v. To remove (plants) from the ground for transplanting.
9. v. To project or sound in loud, clear tones: lifted their voices in song.
10. v. Informal To steal; pilfer: A thief lifted my wallet.
11. v. Informal To copy from something already published; plagiarize: lifted whole paragraphs from the encyclopedia.
12. v. To pay off or clear (a debt or mortgage, for example).
13. v. To perform cosmetic surgery on (the face, for example), especially in order to remove wrinkles or sagging skin.
14. v. Sports To hit (a golf ball) very high into the air.
15. v. To pick up (a golf ball) to place it in a better lie.
16. v. To shoot or flip (a puck) so that it rises sharply off the ice.
17. v. To rise; ascend.
18. v. To yield to upward pressure: These windows lift easily.
19. v. To disappear or disperse by or as if by rising: By afternoon the smog had lifted.
20. v. To stop temporarily: The rain lifted by morning.
21. v. To become elevated; soar: Their spirits lifted when help came.
22. n. The act or process of rising or raising to a higher position.
23. n. Power or force available for raising: the lift of a pump.
24. n. An amount or a weight raised or capable of being raised at one time; a load.
25. n. The extent or height to which something is raised or rises; the amount of elevation.
26. n. The distance or space through which something is raised or rises.
27. n. A rise or an elevation in the level of the ground.
28. n. An elevation of the spirits: The good news gave us a lift.
29. n. A raised, high, or erect position, as of a part of the body: the lift of his chin.
30. n. A machine or device designed to pick up, raise, or carry something.
31. n. One of the layers of leather, rubber, or other material making up the heel of a shoe.
32. n. Chiefly British A passenger or cargo elevator.
33. n. A ride in a vehicle given to help someone reach a destination: gave my friend a lift into town.
34. n. Assistance or help: gave her a lift with her heavy packages.
35. n. A set of pumps used in a mine.
36. n. The component of the total aerodynamic force acting on an airfoil or on an entire aircraft or winged missile perpendicular to the relative wind and normally exerted in an upward direction, opposing the pull of gravity.
37. lift off To begin flight: The spacecraft lifted off at noon.
38. idiom. lift fire To increase the range of artillery fire by elevating the muzzle of a piece.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The air; the atmosphere; the sky; the heavens.
2. To move or heave upward in space; bring to a higher place or position; raise; elevate: often followed by up: as, to lift a stone from the ground: to lift up one who has fallen.
3. To bring to a higher degree, rank, or condition; make more lofty or considerable; elevate; exalt; raise to a high or a higher pitch or state of feeling, as the voice, the mind, etc.
4. To keep elevated or exalted; hold up; display on high: as, the mountain lifts its head above the clouds.
5. To take away; steal. See lift.
6. In mining, same as draw, 30.
7. To gather; collect: as, to lift rents.
8. To carve (a swan).
9. To bear; support.
10. Synonyms and Hoist, Heave, etc. See raise.
11. To raise or endeavor to raise something; exert the strength for the purpose of raising something.
12. To rise or seem to rise; disappear in the air: as, the fog lifts.
13. Nautical, to shake lightly in the wind: said of a sail when the wind blows on its edge at too small an angle to fill it.
14. n. The act or manner of lifting or raising; a raising or rising up; elevation.
15. n. Assistance by, or by means of, lifting; hence, assistance in general; a helping hand: as, to give one a lift (a help on one's way) in a wagon.
16. n. A rise; degree of elevation; extent of rise, or distance through which anything is raised.
17. n. Specifically— The extent of rise in a canal-lock: as, a lift of ten feet.
18. n. In mining: The distance from one level to another.
19. n. The distance through which the pestle of an ore-stamp rises and falls.
20. n. A rise in state or condition; promotion; advancement: as, to get a lift in the army for bravery.
21. n. Elevation of style or sentiment; action of lifting or elevating, as the mind.
22. n. Anything which assists in lifting, or by which objects are lifted. Specifically— A hoisting-machine or other device for raising or lowering persons or things vertically from a lower to a higher level or vice versa. (See elevator, 4.) A lift in a canal is a large machine-elevator sometimes used instead of a lock.
23. n. In mining, a set of pumps.
24. n. A handle, knob, or other device attached to windows and window-blinds to afford a hold in raising or lowering them.
25. n. One of the steps or grooves of a cone-pulley. The speed of the hoist is varied by changing the belt from lift to lift.
26. n. The long stock or rod of a deep well-pump.
27. n. In a ship's rigging, one of the ropes connecting the ends of a yard with a masthead or cap. By means of such ropes the yards are squared or trimmed—that is, brought into and held in a position at right angles with the mast.
28. n. A machine for exercising the body by the act of lifting. Also called lifting-machine and health-lift.
29. n. In a lathe and in other machine-tools, any one of the ledges, flats, or grooves on or in the periphery of the headstock-pulley, and of a similar pulley of the shaft or countershaft from which power is taken. These lifts are so proportioned and arranged that shifting the belt from a lift of a given diameter to one of a smaller diameter on the headstock-pulley compels it to be also shifted from a lift of smaller to one of larger diameter on the countershaft-pulley. Thus several definite changes of speed of rotation may be obtained with the same belt.
30. n. That which is lifted or is to be lifted. Specifically— A weight to be raised: as, a heavy lift.
31. n. In a boot or shoe, one of the thicknesses of leather which are pegged together to form the heel; a heel-lift.
32. n. A last resort; a desperate emergency.
33. To remove surreptitiously; take and carry away; steal; purloin: as, to lift cattle.
34. To practise theft; steal.
35. n. A thief.
36. An obsolete form of left.
37. In cricket, to hit (the ball) high into the air.
38. In archery, to shoot at an elevation, or with a high trajectory, in order to cover the required distance: said of an arrow.
39. In forestry, to pry up (seedlings in a seed-bed), so that they may be pulled up by hand for transplanting.
40. To pay off; take off (a mortgage).
41. To bring (a constellation) above the horizon in sailing, etc.
42. To drive (sheep or cattle) to market.
43. n. In coal-mining, a slice or cut taken off a pillar in stoping.
44. n. In textile-manuf., the extent of the traverse of a guide-eye or bobbin, as on a spinningframe.
45. n. In lawn-tennis, a little added power at tho end of the stroke.
46. n. the lifts of the yards on the mainmast; the supports for the yards: specifically, the lifts of the main yard.
47. n. the lifts of the yards on the mizzenmast; the supports for the yards.

Wiktionary

1. n. Air.
2. n. The sky; the heavens; firmament; atmosphere.
3. v. transitive, intransitive To raise.
4. v. transitive, slang To steal.
5. v. transitive To remove (a ban, restriction, etc.).
6. v. transitive To alleviate, to lighten (pressure, tension, stress, etc.)
7. v. transitive to cause to move upwards.
8. v. informal To lift weights; to weight-lift.
9. n. An act of lifting or raising.
10. n. The act of transporting someone in a vehicle; a ride; a trip.
11. n. Australia, New Zealand, UK Mechanical device for vertically transporting goods or people between floors in a building; an elevator.
12. n. An upward force, such as the force that keeps aircraft aloft.
13. n. measurement the difference in elevation between the upper pool and lower pool of a waterway, separated by lock.
14. n. A thief.
15. n. dance The lifting of a dance partner into the air.
16. n. Permanent construction with a built-in platform that is lifted vertically.
17. n. an improvement in mood

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Obs. or Scot. The sky; the atmosphere; the firmament.
2. v. To move in a direction opposite to that of gravitation; to raise; to elevate; to bring up from a lower place to a higher; to upheave; sometimes implying a continued support or holding in the higher place; -- said of material things.
3. v. To raise, elevate, exalt, improve, in rank, condition, estimation, character, etc.; -- often with up.
4. v. obsolete To bear; to support.
5. v. To collect, as moneys due; to raise.
6. v. To steal; to carry off by theft (esp. cattle).
7. v. To try to raise something; to exert the strength for raising or bearing.
8. v. To rise; to become or appear raised or elevated
9. v. To steal; also, to live by theft.
10. n. Act of lifting; also, that which is lifted.
11. n. The space or distance through which anything is lifted.
12. n. colloq., colloq., colloq. Help; assistance, as by lifting. A ride in a vehicle, given by the vehicle's owner to another person as a favor -- usually in “give a lift” or “got a lift”.
13. n. Chiefly Brit., Chiefly Brit. That by means of which a person or thing lifts or is lifted.
14. n. Chiefly Brit. A hoisting machine; an elevator; a dumb waiter.
15. n. An exercising machine.
16. n. A rise; a degree of elevation.
17. n. Prov. Eng. A lift gate. See Lift gate, below.
18. n. (Naut.) A rope leading from the masthead to the extremity of a yard below; -- used for raising or supporting the end of the yard.
19. n. (Mach.) One of the steps of a cone pulley.
20. n. (Shoemaking) A layer of leather in the heel.
21. n. (Horology) That portion of the vibration of a balance during which the impulse is given.
22. n. A brightening of the spirits; encouragement.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a wave that lifts the surface of the water or ground
2. v. rise up
3. v. pay off (a mortgage)
4. v. move upwards
5. n. transportation of people or goods by air (especially when other means of access are unavailable)
6. n. the event of something being raised upward
7. n. lifting device consisting of a platform or cage that is raised and lowered mechanically in a vertical shaft in order to move people from one floor to another in a building
8. v. remove (hair) by scalping
9. v. put an end to
10. n. a device worn in a shoe or boot to make the wearer look taller or to correct a shortened leg
11. v. take off or away by decreasing
12. v. invigorate or heighten
13. v. take hold of something and move it to a different location
14. n. the act of giving temporary assistance
15. v. take without referencing from someone else's writing or speech; of intellectual property
16. v. make off with belongings of others
17. v. raise in rank or condition
18. n. plastic surgery to remove wrinkles and other signs of aging from your face; an incision is made near the hair line and skin is pulled back and excess tissue is excised
19. v. fly people or goods to or from places not accessible by other means
20. n. one of the layers forming the heel of a shoe or boot
21. n. the component of the aerodynamic forces acting on an airfoil that opposes gravity
22. n. a ride in a car
23. v. rise upward, as from pressure or moisture
24. v. take (root crops) out of the ground
25. v. make audible
26. v. raise from a lower to a higher position
27. v. remove from a surface
28. v. call to stop the hunt or to retire, as of hunting dogs
29. v. cancel officially
30. v. perform cosmetic surgery on someone's face
31. v. remove from a seedbed or from a nursery
32. v. raise or haul up with or as if with mechanical help
33. n. a powered conveyance that carries skiers up a hill
34. v. move upward
35. n. the act of raising something
36. v. take illegally