borrow
//ˈbɒɹəʊ//
Forms
- present (v1)
- borrow
- past (v2)
- borrowed
- past participle (v3)
- borrowed
- present participle
- borrowing
- 3rd person singular
- borrows
- Plural
- borrows
Definitions
1.To receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it.
- Can I borrow your book for a minute?
- I need to borrow some money from you.
- May I borrow your dictionary?
2.To receive money from a bank or other lender under the agreement that the lender will be paid back over time.
- Can I borrow your book for a minute?
- I need to borrow some money from you.
- May I borrow your dictionary?
3.To adopt (an idea) as one's own.
- Can I borrow your book for a minute?
- I need to borrow some money from you.
- May I borrow your dictionary?
4.To adopt a word from another language.
- Americans, for example, call newcomers to Antarctica “fingies”, which comes from FNGs – a borrowed military abbreviation that means “Fucking New Guy”.
1.Deviation of the path of a rolling ball from a straight line; slope; slant.
- This putt has a big left-to right borrow on it.
2.In Rust and some other programming languages, the situation where the ownership of a value is temporarily transferred to another region of code.
- If we currently have any borrows of a value, we can't mutably borrow it into self, nor can we move it (because that would invalidate the existing borrows).
3.A borrow pit.
- 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 local borrows.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3109
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English borwen, from 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”).