Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To obtain or receive (something) on loan with the promise or understanding of returning it or its equivalent.
- intransitive verb To adopt or use as one's own.
- intransitive verb In subtraction, to take a unit from the next larger denomination in the minuend so as to make a number larger than the number to be subtracted.
- intransitive verb Linguistics To adopt (a word) from one language for use in another.
- intransitive verb To borrow something.
- intransitive verb Linguistics To adopt words from one language for use in another.
- idiom (borrow trouble) To take an unnecessary action that will probably engender adverse effects.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An obsolete form of
borough . - Nautical, to approach either land or the wind closely.
- noun Same as
borrow-pit . - To take or obtain (a thing) on pledge given for its return, or without pledge, but on the understanding that the thing obtained is to be returned, or an equivalent of the same kind is to be substituted for it; hence, to obtain the temporary use of: with of or from (formerly
at ): as, toborrow a book from a friend; to borrow money of a stranger. - To take or receive gratuitously from another or from a foreign source and apply to one's own use; adopt; appropriate; by euphemism, to steal or plagiarize: as, to
borrow aid; English has many borrowed words; to borrow an author's style, ideas, or language. - To assume or usurp, as something counterfeit, feigned, or not real; assume out of some pretense.
- To be surety for; hence, to redeem; ransom.
- To practise borrowing; take or receive loans; appropriate to one's self what belongs to another or others: as, I neither borrow nor lend; he borrows freely from other authors.
- noun A pledge or surety; bail; security: applied both to the thing given as security and to the person giving it: as, “with baile nor borrowe,”
- noun A borrowing; the act of borrowing.
- noun Cost; expense.
- noun A tithing; a frank-pledge.
- A term used specifically in organ-building: of a pipe which improperly takes the wind from another and sounds at the latter's expense; of a stop or set of pipes which is incomplete in itself, but which is filled out by using some of the pipes of another stop or set: within certain limits the latter arrangement is entirely legitimate, since it renders possible the use of the same pipes in two distinct connections.
- In golf, when putting across sloping ground, to play the ball a little up the slope to counteract its effect.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete Something deposited as security; a pledge; a surety; a hostage.
- noun obsolete The act of borrowing.
- transitive verb To receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; -- the opposite of
lend . - transitive verb (Arith.) To take (one or more) from the next higher denomination in order to add it to the next lower; -- a term of subtraction when the figure of the subtrahend is larger than the corresponding one of the minuend.
- transitive verb To copy or imitate; to adopt.
- transitive verb To feign or counterfeit.
- transitive verb To receive; to take; to derive.
- transitive verb to be needlessly troubled; to be overapprehensive.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaic A
ransom ; apledge orguarantee . - noun archaic A
surety ; someone standingbail . - verb To
receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting toreturn it. - verb To adopt (an idea) as one's own.
- verb linguistics To adopt a word from another language.
- verb arithmetic In a
subtraction , to deduct (one) from a digit of theminuend and add ten to the following digit, in order that the subtraction of a larger digit in thesubtrahend from the digit in the minuend to which ten is added gives a positive result. - verb proscribed To
lend . - verb US, dialect To temporarily obtain (something) for (someone).
- noun golf Deviation of the path of a rolling ball from a straight line; slope; slant.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb get temporarily
- verb take up and practice as one's own
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word borrow.
Examples
-
Meanwhile, the witnesses of the rural wedding had all skedaddled -- to borrow a Greek word -- into the woods, in dire confusion, tearing dresses, pulling down 'back hair,' hitching hoop skirts, and tumbling over blackberry vines -- but each intent on increasing the distance from the mad cow.
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various
-
A gallery of idols with delicious flat chests, or to borrow a Japanese word, petanko.
Anime Nano! 2008
-
A gallery of idols with delicious flat chests, or to borrow a Japanese word, petanko.
-
A gallery of idols with delicious flat chests, or to borrow a Japanese word, petanko.
-
A gallery of idols with delicious flat chests, or to borrow a Japanese word, petanko.
-
“The money we borrow is going to be paid back through taxation in the future,” he says.
-
Our deficit, national debt and the amount we have to borrow is in the news at the moment but how bad is it really?
Deficit, national debt and government borrowing - how has it changed since 1946? Julia Kollewe 2010
-
But to borrow from the Bard, here's the rub: some preserves list apricot first, followed by sugar.
David Katz, M.D.: HFCS Name Change: Good, Bad or In Between? M.D. David Katz 2010
-
Yes, we should all work together and the government should help where appropriate, but the government can only provide help with money we give them except when they borrow from the future.
-
Yes, we should all work together and the government should help where appropriate, but the government can only provide help with money we give them except when they borrow from the future.
-
A procession of dump trucks will carry the material along a road from the dam up a nearby ridge to a “borrow pit” — a crater in the hill where material for the dam was removed in the early 1960s.
The Klamath River’s Iron Gate comes down, one scoop at a time Juliet Grable 2024
frangarnes commented on the word borrow
Pedir o tomar prestado // borrow ≠ lend, loan // WordReference
October 19, 2007