Borrow

/ˈbɒɹəʊ/ · verb

Meaning

To receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it..

Definitions by Sense

1. To receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it.
2. To receive money from a bank or other lender under the agreement that the lender will be paid back over time.
3. To adopt (an idea) as one's own.
4. (linguistics) To adopt a word from another language.
5. (arithmetic) In a subtraction, to deduct (one) from a digit of the minuend and add ten to the following digit, in order that the subtraction of a larger digit in the subtrahend from the digit in the minuend to which ten is added gives a positive result.
6. (Upper Midwestern US, West Midlands, Malaysia, Singapore, proscribed) To lend.
7. (ditransitive) To temporarily obtain (something) for (someone).
8. To feign or counterfeit.

Example Sentences

Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.

to borrow the style, manner, or opinions of another

It is not hard for any man, who hath a Bible in his hands, to borrow good words and holy sayings in abundance; but to make them his own is a work of grace only from above.

Dryden’s form is of course borrowed from the ancients

Americans, for example, call newcomers to Antarctica “fingies”, which comes from FNGs – a borrowed military abbreviation that means “Fucking New Guy”.

“Rosie, borrow me your look looker, I bet my lips are all. Everytime^([sic]) I eat or drink, so quick I gotta fix ’em, yet.”

Johari Salleh: Ya, ya. Better not waste time. Must prepare, tomorrow morning got inspection. Teo Ah Beng: Ya lah, must kiwi [polish] the boots. Can borrow me your cloth? Krishnamoorthy: Ya, no problem. You better kiwi quickly. 11 pm lights off. […]

Samson, with all the cunning of a rhetorical master, cornered him. 'Then can my young son borrow me his old rifle?'

Synonyms for borrow

Antonyms for borrow

Related Words

Word Forms

• borrows
• borrowing
• borrowed
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• borrow
• borrowest
• borrowedst
• borroweth
• -
• boro

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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