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”). 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.
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.2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:
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To receive money from a bank or other lender under the agreement that the lender will be paid back over time.
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To adopt (an idea) as one's own.
to borrow the style, manner, or opinions of another
It is not hard for any man, who hath a Bible in his hands, to borrow good words and holy sayings in abundance; but to make them his own is a work of grace only from above.1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:
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Dryden’s form is of course borrowed from the ancients1881, William Minto, Margaret Bryant, “John Dryden”, in Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition:
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences 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”.2024 June 20, Eva Corlett, “Fidlets, fingies and riding a doo: study sheds light on Antarctic English slang”, in The Guardian:
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Arithmetic In a subtraction, to deduct (one) from a digit of the minuend and add ten to the following digit, in order that the subtraction of a larger digit in the subtrahend from the digit in the minuend to which ten is added gives a positive result.
“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.”1951, The Grenadiers, edited by James P. Leary, Wisconsin Folklore, University of Wisconsin Press, published 1998, →ISBN, Milwaukee Talk, page 56:
Johari Salleh: Ya, ya. Better not waste time. Must prepare, tomorrow morning got inspection. Teo Ah Beng: Ya lah, must kiwi [polish] the boots. Can borrow me your cloth? Krishnamoorthy: Ya, no problem. You better kiwi quickly. 11 pm lights off. […]1987, Michael Chiang, Army Daze, Singapore: Landmark Books, →ISBN:
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Samson, with all the cunning of a rhetorical master, cornered him. 'Then can my young son borrow me his old rifle?'1996, Beverley Harper, Storms Over Africa:
In a bank they borrow you 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, Sarah Curtis, Children who Break the Law, Or, Everybody Does it, page 21:
The next week she came back and she said to me and my husband, "If I borrow you the money to buy a little house do you think you can pay me back like rent?"1999, Marie Hall Ets, Rosa: The Life of an Italian Immigrant, page 233:
“Ryan, borrow me your lunch pail so we can fill it with blueberries. Susie can make us a pie.”2005, Gladys Blyth, Summer at the Cannery, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 83:
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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.1623, William Shakespeare, As You Like It:
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, and borrowed him a horse in the town.1681, Mr. Normanton, quotee, “Trial of Sir Miles Stapleton”, in State Trials, 33 Charles II, page 516:
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I went out and borrowed him a night cap; put him my night shirt on, and wrapped him in a blanket.1866 April 20, Charles W. G. Howard, “Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Select Committee”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons), page 84:
My folks couldn't afford a guitar, so my dad borrowed me 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.1999 August 1, “Ronnie Dawson, Singer, Comments on his Career and Music”, in NPR_Weekend:
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 to borrow me a divine brass crazier from one of his bishop friends.2006, Laurie Graham, Gone with the Windsors, page 116:
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To feign or counterfeit.
borrowed hair1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 14:
the borrowed majesty of Englandc. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
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To secure the release of (someone) from prison.
Obsolete except in ballads
But if ony maiden would borrow me, I would wed her wi' a ring, And a' my land and a' my houses, They should a' be at her command.Traditional, "Young Beichan" (Child ballad 53)
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Informal To receive (something, usually of trifling value) from somebody, with little possibility of returning it.
Can I borrow a sheet of paper?
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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 I borrow you for a second? I need your help with the copier.
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Golf, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports To adjust one's aim in order to compensate for the slope of the green.
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”). 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.
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Golf, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports 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.
The amount of borrow, as we term it, that must be taken from the side of any particular slope is entirely a matter of mathematical calculation, […]1905, Harry Vardon, The Complete Golfer:
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[…] slippery contours, so that in making a side hill putt more than the usual amount of borrow had to be considered.2020, George C. Thomas, Golf Architecture in America: Its Strategy and Construction:
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.1979, The Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin:
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Programming, Sciences 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).2018, Daniel Arbuckle, Rust Quick Start Guide:
borrow
noun
Etymology From Middle English borwe, borgh, from Old English borh, borg, from Proto-West Germanic *borgōn, from Proto-Germanic *burgōną (“to borrow, lend”) (related to Etymology 1, above).
”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 as borrows my two priests.”1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe: