borrow

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to get temporarily

   May I borrow your lawn mower?

2. 2
   verb

   to take up and practice as one's own

   I borrowed their habit of signing all my letters with my full name.

3. 3
   verb

   To receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it.

   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.

4. 4
   verb

   To adopt (an idea) as one's own.

   to borrow the style, manner, or opinions of another

5. 5
   verb

   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”.

6. 6
   verb

   To lend.

   “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.”

7. 7
   verb

   To temporarily obtain (something) for (someone).

   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.

8. 8
   verb

   To feign or counterfeit.

   borrowed hair

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.