borrow

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See also:Borrow

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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FromMiddle Englishborwen,borȝien,Old Englishborgian(“to borrow, lend, pledge surety for”),fromProto-West Germanic*borgōn,fromProto-Germanic*burgōną(“to pledge, take care of”),fromProto-Indo-European*bʰergʰ-(“to take care”).

Cognate withDutchborgen(“to borrow, trust”),Germanborgen(“to borrow, lend”),Danishborge(“to vouch”).Related toOld Englishbeorgan(“to save, preserve”).More atbury.

Alternative forms

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  • boro(Jamaican English)

Verb

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borrow(third-person singular simple presentborrows,present participleborrowing,simple past and past participleborrowed)

  1. Toreceive(something) from somebody temporarily, expecting toreturnit.
    • 2013June 1, “End of the peer show”,inThe Economist,volume407,number8838,page71:
      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 toborroware matched with those that want to lend.
  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.
    toborrowthe style, manner, or opinions of another
    • 1649,J[ohn] Milton,ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ[Eikonoklástēs][…],London:[…]Matthew Simmons,[…],→OCLC:
      It is not hard for any man, who hath a Bible in his hands, toborrowgood words and holy sayings in abundance; but to make them his own is a work of grace only from above.
    • 1881,William Minto,Margaret Bryant, “John Dryden”, inEncyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition‎[1]:
      Dryden’s form is of courseborrowedfrom the ancients
  4. (linguistics)To adopt a word from another language.
  5. (arithmetic)In asubtraction,to deduct (one) from a digit of theminuendand add ten to the following digit, in order that the subtraction of a larger digit in thesubtrahendfrom the digit in the minuend to which ten is added gives a positive result.
  6. (Upper Midwestern United States,West Midlands,Malaysia,proscribed)Tolend.
    • 1951,The Grenadiers, edited by James P. Leary,Wisconsin Folklore,University of Wisconsin Press, published1998,→ISBN,Milwaukee Talk, page56:
      “Rosie,borrowme your look looker, I bet my lips are all. Everytime[sic]I eat or drink, so quick I gotta fix ’em, yet.”
    • 1996,Beverley Harper,Storms Over Africa:
      Samson, with all the cunning of a rhetorical master, cornered him. 'Then can my young sonborrowme his old rifle?'
    • 1999,Sarah Curtis,Children who Break the Law, Or, Everybody Does it,page21:
      In a bank theyborrowyou 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.
    • 1999,Marie Hall Ets,Rosa: The Life of an Italian Immigrant,page233:
      The next week she came back and she said to me and my husband, "If Iborrowyou the money to buy a little house do you think you can pay me back like rent? "
    • 2005,Gladys Blyth,Summer at the Cannery,Trafford Publishing,→ISBN,page83:
      “Ryan,borrowme your lunch pail so we can fill it with blueberries. Susie can make us a pie.”
    • 2006,Andrés Rueda,The Clawback,Andres Rueda,→ISBN,Chapter 13, page131:
      Georgi reached for his empty pockets. “Can youborrowme your telephone?”
    • 2007,Silvia Cecchini,Bach Flowers Fairytales,Lulu.com,→ISBN,page 7:
      “Gaia, could youborrowme your pencils,[sic]today, if you do not use them?”
  7. (ditransitive)To temporarily obtain (something) for (someone).
    • 1623,William Shakespeare,As You Like It:
      You mustborrowme 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.
    • 1681,Mr. Normanton, quotee, “Trial of Sir Miles Stapleton”, inState Trials, 33 Charles II,page516:
      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, andborrowedhim a horse in the town.
    • 1866April 20, Charles W. G. Howard, “Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Select Committee”, inparliamentary debates(House of Commons), page84:
      I went out andborrowedhim a night cap; put him my night shirt on, and wrapped him in a blanket.
    • 1999August 1, “Ronnie Dawson, Singer, Comments on his Career and Music”, inNPR_Weekend:
      My folks couldn't afford a guitar, so my dadborrowedme 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.
    • 2006,Laurie Graham,Gone with the Windsors,page116:
      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 toborrowme a divine brass crazier from one of his bishop friends.
  8. To feign or counterfeit.
  9. (obsolete except in ballads)To secure the release of (someone) from prison.
    • Traditional,"Young Beichan" (Child ballad 53)
      But if ony maiden wouldborrowme,
      I would wed her wi' a ring,
      And a' my land and a' my houses,
      They should a' be at her command.
  10. (informal)Toreceive(something, usually of trifling value) from somebody, with little possibility of returning it.
    Can Iborrowa sheet of paper?
  11. (informal)To interrupt the current activity of (a person) and lead them away in order to speak with them, get their help, etc.
    John, can Iborrowyou for a second? I need your help with the copier.
  12. (golf)Toadjustone'saimin order tocompensatefor theslopeof thegreen.
Conjugation
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Conjugation ofborrow
infinitive (to)borrow
present tense past tense
1st-personsingularborrow borrowed
2nd-personsingular borrow,borrowest† borrowed,borrowedst†
3rd-personsingular borrows,borroweth† borrowed
plural borrow
subjunctive borrow borrowed
imperative borrow —
participles borrowing borrowed
Synonyms
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Antonyms
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  • (antonym(s) of“receive temporarily”):give back(exchanging the transfer of ownership),lend(exchanging the owners),return(exchanging the transfer of ownership)
  • (antonym(s) of“in arithmetic”):carry(the equivalent reverse procedure in the inverse operation of addition)
Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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borrow(countableanduncountable,pluralborrows)

  1. (golf,countable,uncountable)Deviation of the path of a rolling ball from a straight line; slope; slant.
    This putt has a big left-to rightborrowon it.
    • 1905,Harry Vardon,The Complete Golfer:
      The amount ofborrow,as we term it, that must be taken from the side of any particular slope is entirely a matter of mathematical calculation,[…]
    • 2020,George C. Thomas,Golf Architecture in America: Its Strategy and Construction:
      […]slippery contours, so that in making a side hill putt more than the usual amount ofborrowhad to be considered.
  2. (construction,civil engineering)Aborrow pit.
    • 1979,The Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin:
      As previously indicated, slurry used for construction of the slurry cutoff trench at Beaver Creek Dam was produced with natural clays and clay tills from localborrows.
  3. (programming)In theRustprogramming language, the situation where theownershipof avalueis temporarily transferred to another region of code.
    • 2018,Daniel Arbuckle,Rust Quick Start Guide:
      If we currently have anyborrowsof a value, we can't mutably borrow it intoself,nor can we move it (because that would invalidate the existingborrows).
Translations
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Etymology 2

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FromMiddle Englishborwe,borgh,fromOld Englishborh,borg,fromProto-West Germanic*borgōn,fromProto-Germanic*burgōną(“to borrow, lend”)(related to Etymology 1, above).

Noun

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borrow(pluralborrows)

  1. (archaic)Aransom;apledgeorguarantee.
  2. (archaic)Asurety;someone standingbail.
    • 1819,Walter Scott,Ivanhoe:
      ”where am I to find such a sum? If I sell the very pyx and candlesticks on the altar at Jorvaulx, I shall scarce raise the half; and it will be necessary for that purpose that I go to Jorvaulx myself; ye may retain asborrowsmy two priests.”
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