Word: lift Part of Speech: verb 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)). But perhaps simply from the idea of removing an item from a surface. Pronunciation: /lɪft/ 1. To raise or rise. Labels: ambitransitive Example: The fog eventually lifted, leaving the streets clear. Example: You never lift a finger to help me! 2. To raise or rise. Labels: ambitransitive, transitive Example: Graham secured victory with five minutes left, coolly lifting the ball over Asmir Begovic. 3. To steal. Labels: slang, transitive Example: 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. Example: “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.” 4. To source directly without acknowledgement; to plagiarise. Labels: slang, transitive Example: 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). 5. To arrest (a person). Labels: slang, transitive Example: 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. 6. To remove (a ban, restriction, etc.). Labels: transitive 7. To alleviate, to lighten (pressure, tension, stress, etc.) Labels: transitive Example: 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. 8. To disperse, to break up. Labels: Scotland, especially, intransitive Example: About three o'clock in the mornin', the company began to lift, and the room to get thinner and thinner. Example: 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[…] 9. To lift weights; to weight-lift. Labels: informal, intransitive Example: She lifts twice a week at the gym. 10. To try to raise something; to exert the strength for raising or bearing. Example: strained by lifting at a weight too heavy 11. To elevate or improve in rank, condition, etc.; often with up. Example: The Roman virtues lift up mortal man. Example: being lifted up with pride 12. To bear; to support. Labels: obsolete Example: Th' earth him underneath Did grone, as feeble so great load to lift. 13. To collect, as moneys due; to raise. 14. 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.etymology 1, noun 20) Labels: transitive 15. 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.etymology 1, noun 20) Labels: transitive Example: 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. 16. To buy a security or other asset previously offered for sale. 17. To take (hounds) off the existing scent and move them to another spot. Labels: transitive Example: I lifted the hounds (hoping to catch the leading ones there) to the far side of Hallaton Thorns.