borrow
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: bŏrʹō
ipa: /ˈbɒɹ.əʊ/
enpr: bärʹō
ipa: /ˈbɑɹ.oʊ/
enpr: bôrʹo
enpr: bōrʹō
ipa: [ˈbɔ(ː)ɹo(ʊ)]
ipa: [ˈboːɹo(ʊ)]
rhymes: -ɒɹəʊ
Forms: form: borrows
form: borrowing
form: borrowed
form: borrowed
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: borrow
form: borrow
form: borrowed
form: borrow
form: borrowest
form: borrowed
form: borrowedst
form: borrows
form: borroweth
form: borrowed
form: borrow
form: borrowed
form: borrow
form: borrowed
form: borrow
form: -
form: borrowing
form: borrowed
form: boro
Etymology: From Middle English borwen, borȝien, Old English borgian (“to borrow, lend, pledge surety for”), from Proto-West Germanic *borgōn, from Proto-Germanic *burgōną (“to pledge, take care of”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰergʰ- (“to take care”).
Cognate with Dutch borgen (“to borrow, trust”), German borgen (“to borrow, lend”), Danish borge (“to vouch”). Related to Old English beorgan (“to save, preserve”). More at bury.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:
glosses: To receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it.
glosses: To receive money from a bank or other lender under the agreement that the lender will be paid back over time.
examples: text: to borrow the style, manner, or opinions of another
text: 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.
ref: 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:
text: Dryden’s form is of course borrowed from the ancients
ref: 1881, William Minto, Margaret Bryant, “John Dryden”, in Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition:
glosses: To adopt (an idea) as one's own.
examples: text: Americans, for example, call newcomers to Antarctica “fingies”, which comes from FNGs – a borrowed military abbreviation that means “Fucking New Guy”.
ref: 2024 June 20, Eva Corlett, “Fidlets, fingies and riding a doo: study sheds light on Antarctic English slang”, in The Guardian:
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: To adopt a word from another language.
topics: arithmetic
glosses: 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.
examples: text: “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.”
ref: 1951, The Grenadiers, edited by James P. Leary, Wisconsin Folklore, University of Wisconsin Press, published 1998, →ISBN, Milwaukee Talk, page 56:
text: 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. […]
ref: 1987, Michael Chiang, Army Daze, Singapore: Landmark Books, →ISBN:
text: Samson, with all the cunning of a rhetorical master, cornered him. 'Then can my young son borrow me his old rifle?'
ref: 1996, Beverley Harper, Storms Over Africa:
text: In a bank they borrow you the money at very low rates and if you don't take it back, you suffer the consequences in a jail sentence and there's a certain procedure it goes through.
ref: 1999, Sarah Curtis, Children who Break the Law, Or, Everybody Does it, page 21:
text: The next week she came back and she said to me and my husband, "If I borrow you the money to buy a little house do you think you can pay me back like rent?"
ref: 1999, Marie Hall Ets, Rosa: The Life of an Italian Immigrant, page 233:
text: “Ryan, borrow me your lunch pail so we can fill it with blueberries. Susie can make us a pie.”
ref: 2005, Gladys Blyth, Summer at the Cannery, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 83:
text: Georgi reached for his empty pockets. “Can you borrow me your telephone?”
ref: 2006, Andrés Rueda, The Clawback, Andres Rueda, →ISBN, Chapter 13, page 131:
text: “Gaia, could you borrow me your pencils ,^([sic]) today, if you do not use them?”
ref: 2007, Silvia Cecchini, Bach Flowers Fairytales, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 7:
qualifier: Upper Midwestern United States
glosses: To lend.
examples: text: You must borrow me Garagantua's mouth first: 'tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size: To say, ay, and no, to these particulars, is more than to answer in a catechism.
ref: 1623, William Shakespeare, As You Like It:
text: Yes, my lord, he told me this in my own house; and I told him he might go to esquire Tindal, and I lent him eighteen pence, and borrowed him a horse in the town.
ref: 1681, Mr. Normanton, quotee, “Trial of Sir Miles Stapleton”, in State Trials, 33 Charles II, page 516:
text: I went out and borrowed him a night cap; put him my night shirt on, and wrapped him in a blanket.
ref: 1866 April 20, Charles W. G. Howard, “Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Select Committee”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons), page 84:
text: My folks couldn't afford a guitar, so my dad borrowed me a mandolin one time, and I was just learning to play it pretty good and the guy that he borrowed it from wanted it back.
ref: 1999 August 1, “Ronnie Dawson, Singer, Comments on his Career and Music”, in NPR_Weekend:
text: George Lightfoot seemed to have forgotten he was meant to be a Lost Sheep, and turned up as the Tin Man, but I forgave him, because he'd managed to borrow me a divine brass crazier from one of his bishop friends.
ref: 2006, Laurie Graham, Gone with the Windsors, page 116:
glosses: To temporarily obtain (something) for (someone).
examples: text: borrowed hair
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 14:
text: the borrowed majesty of England
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
glosses: To feign or counterfeit.
examples: text: But if ony maiden would borrow me,
I would wed her wi' a ring,
And a' my land and a' my houses,
They should a' be at her command.
ref: Traditional, "Young Beichan" (Child ballad 53)
qualifier: obsolete except in ballads
glosses: To secure the release of (someone) from prison.
examples: text: Can I borrow a sheet of paper?
glosses: To receive (something, usually of trifling value) from somebody, with little possibility of returning it.
examples: text: John, can I borrow you for a second? I need your help with the copier.
glosses: To interrupt the current activity of (a person) and lead them away in order to speak with them, get their help, etc.
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To adjust one's aim in order to compensate for the slope of the green.
Synonyms: sense: adopt
word: adopt
sense: adopt
word: use
word: borrow
word: creance
word: desume
word: scunge
Hypernyms: word: receive
Hyponyms: word: mortgage
word: hire
word: rent
Derived terms: borrowability
borrowable
borrow a leaf out of someone's book
Borrowdale
borrowed time
borrowee
borrower
borrow from Peter to pay Paul
borrowing days
borrow trouble
inborrow
nonborrowing
outborrow
overborrow
preborrowing
reborrow
unborrowing
Related terms: word: borrower