lend

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To let someone use something of yours for a while, expecting it back.

   I will only lend you my car if you fill up the tank.

2. 2
   verb

   To give or provide something such as help or support.

   Can you lend me a hand with these boxes?

3. 3
   verb

   To add a quality to something.

   The candles lend a warm glow to the room.

4. 4
   verb

   To be suitable for a particular use.

   Poems do not lend themselves easily to translation.

From Middle English lende (usually in plural as lendes, leendes, lyndes), from Old English lendenu, lendino (“loins”), plural of Old English lenden (“loin”), from Proto-West Germanic *landī, from Proto-Germanic *landį̄ (“loin”), from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- (“loin, kidney”). Cognate with Scots lend, leynd (“the loins, flank, buttocks”), Dutch lendenen (“loins, reins”), German Lenden (“loins”), Swedish länder (“loins”), Danish lænd (“loin”), Icelandic lendar (“loins”), Latin lumbus (“loin”) (whence loin), Polish lędźwie (“loins”), Russian ля́двея (ljádveja, “thigh, haunch”).

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