lift
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: lĭft
ipa: /lɪft/
rhymes: -ɪft
Forms: form: lifts
form: lifting
form: lifted
form: lift
form: lifted
form: lift
form: yleft
Etymology: From Middle English liften, lyften, from Old Norse lypta (“to lift, air”, literally “to raise in the air”), from Proto-Germanic *luftijaną (“to raise in the air”), related to *luftuz (“roof, air”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *lewp- (“to peel, break off, damage”) or from a root meaning roof (see *luftuz). Cognate with Danish and Norwegian Bokmål løfte (“to lift”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish lyfta (“to lift”), German lüften (“to air, lift”), Old English lyft (“air”). See above. 1851 for the noun sense "a mechanical device for vertical transport".
(To steal): For this sense Cleasby suggests perhaps a relation to the root of Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌹𐍆𐍄𐌿𐍃 (hliftus) "thief", cognate with Latin cleptus and Greek κλέπτω (kléptō)).
Senses: examples: text: The fog eventually lifted, leaving the streets clear.
text: You never lift a finger to help me!
text: c. 1490, Of Penance and Confession be master Jhon Yrlandː
Liftand (lifting) thy hands and thy eyen to Heaven.
text: Their walk had continued not more than ten minutes when they crossed a creek by a wooden bridge and came to a row of mean houses standing flush with the street. At the door of one, an old black woman had stooped to lift a large basket, piled high with laundered clothes.
ref: 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:
text: A long, late-night tracking shot from one end of the Neon Boot bar to another actually tracks along the surface of the bar itself—and when there is a drunk passed out on the bar, the camera simply lifts up and flies over him, then continues on its route.
ref: 1984 October 12, Janet Maslin, “Blood Simple, A black-comic romp”, in The New York Times, retrieved 09 Jul 2012:
text: Once it [a snowdrop variety] became established, some bulbs were lifted and passed on to be chipped (i.e. cut into small pieces and grown on).
ref: 2015 February 7, Val Bourne, “The quiet man of the world of snowdrops”, in The Daily Telegraph (London), page G8:
glosses: To raise or rise.
examples: text: Graham secured victory with five minutes left, coolly lifting the ball over Asmir Begovic.
ref: 2011 October 2, Aled Williams, “Swansea 2 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport Wales:
glosses: To raise or rise.
To cause to move upwards.
examples: text: Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border side,
And he has lifted the Colonel's mare that is the Colonel's pride.
ref: 1919, Rudyard Kipling, The Ballad of East and West:
text: “Wilbert Cream is a ... what's the word?” I referred to the letter. “A kleptomaniac […] Does any thought occur to you?” “It most certainly does. I am thinking of your uncle's collection of old silver.” “Me, too.” “It presents a grave temptation to the unhappy young man.” “I don't know that I'd call him unhappy. He probably thoroughly enjoys lifting the stuff.”
ref: 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
glosses: To steal.
examples: text: Based on a similarity across a range of Anglo-Indian entries in these three dictionaries, it appears that (along with other lexis) Barrère and Leland (1898) copied this entry from Hotten (1864), who had in turn lifted it directly from Stocqueler (1848).
ref: 2018, James Lambert, “Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles”, in World Englishes, volume 37, page 258:
glosses: To source directly without acknowledgement; to plagiarise.
examples: text: Maybe the police lifted him and he's in Castlereagh [Interrogation Centre] because he'd been lifted three or four times previously and took to Castlereagh. They used to come in and raid the house and take him away.
ref: 2000, Marie Smyth, Marie-Therese Fay, Personal Accounts From Northern Ireland's Troubles:
glosses: To arrest (a person).
glosses: To remove (a ban, restriction, etc.).
examples: text: The Gunners boss has been heavily criticised for his side's poor start to the Premier League season but this result helps lift the pressure.
ref: 2011 September 24, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To alleviate, to lighten (pressure, tension, stress, etc.)
examples: text: About three o'clock in the mornin', the company began to lift, and the room to get thinner and thinner.
ref: 1832, The Day, page 127:
text: Others thought the bank [of clouds] would "lift," and that it would be a fine "kwait nicht"; and as they were generally unwilling to lose a night's fishing, most of the crews resolved to proceed to sea, though not without serious misgivings[…]
ref: 1887, George Garden Green, Gordonhaven, by an old fisherman [G.G. Green]., page 49:
text: But Miss Macnee had one important move in reserve. She saw the company was about to 'lift,' as she was pleased to term it, and this move must be made before they separated.
ref: 1891, Henry Johnston (barrister.), Kilmallie, page 55:
text: "Since when, Willy?" Margrédel led him. "Since the regiment lifted." […] She knew that [the person] had left with his regiment.
ref: 1894, David Storrar Meldrum, The Story of Margrédel: Being a Fireside History of a Fifeshire Family, page 228:
glosses: To disperse, to break up.
examples: text: She lifts twice a week at the gym.
glosses: To lift weights; to weight-lift.
examples: text: strained by lifting at a weight too heavy
ref: a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC:
glosses: To try to raise something; to exert the strength for raising or bearing.
examples: text: The Roman virtues lift up mortal man.
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:
text: being lifted up with pride
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 3:6:
glosses: To elevate or improve in rank, condition, etc.; often with up.
examples: text: Th' earth him underneath
Did grone, as feeble so great load to lift.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To bear; to support.
glosses: To collect, as moneys due; to raise.
topics: category-theory
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Given morphisms f and g with the same target: To produce a morphism which the given morphism factors through (i.e. a morphism h such that f=g∘h; cf. lift n.18)
examples: text: Finally, we can lift a partial function into a regular (total) function that returns an Option or a Some(value) when the partial function is defined for the input argument or None when it isn't.
ref: 2021, Dean Wampler, chapter 2, in Programming Scala, 3rd edition, O'Reilly, →ISBN:
topics: category-theory
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: Given morphisms f and g with the same target: To produce a morphism which the given morphism factors through (i.e. a morphism h such that f=g∘h; cf. lift n.18)
To transform (a function) into a corresponding function in a different context.
topics: business
finance
glosses: To buy a security or other asset previously offered for sale.
examples: text: I lifted the hounds (hoping to catch the leading ones there) to the far side of Hallaton Thorns.
ref: 1885, Lina Chaworth Musters, Book of Hunting Songs and Sport, page 144:
topics: hobbies
hunting
lifestyle
glosses: To take (hounds) off the existing scent and move them to another spot.
Hyponyms: airlift
Derived terms: airlift
code-lift
forelift
liftable
lift a finger
lift all boats
lift and separate
lift and shift
lift down
lifting
lift off
lift oneself up by one's bootstraps
lift oneself up by one's boot-tags
lift oneself up by one's own bootstraps
lift oneself up by one's own boot-tags
lift oneself up by one's own waistbands
lift one's game
lift someone's spirits
lift the bar
lift the lid
lift up
outlift
relift
shoplift
uplift