BORROW • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Borrow

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/bˈɑrˌoʊ/ Listen

verb

Borrow v. t. (past & past part. borrowed; pres. part. borrowing)

1.

To receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; the opposite of lend.

2.

(Arith.) To take (one or more) from the next higher denomination in order to add it to the next lower; a term of subtraction when the figure of the subtrahend is larger than the corresponding one of the minuend.

3.

To copy or imitate; to adopt; as, to borrow the style, manner, or opinions of another. "Rites borrowed from the ancients." "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."

4.

To feign or counterfeit. "Borrowed hair." "The borrowed majesty of England."

5.

To receive; to take; to derive. "Any drop thou borrowedst from thy mother."

To borrow trouble, to be needlessly troubled; to be overapprehensive.

noun

Borrow n.

1.

Something deposited as security; a pledge; a surety; a hostage. (Obs.) "Ye may retain as borrows my two priests."

2.

The act of borrowing. (Obs.) "Of your royal presence I'll adventure The borrow of a week."

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Etymology of 'Borrow'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Borrow" Quotes from Famous Books

... century, a life so different from that of his own youth and early manhood, was strangely keen and insistent. Sometimes in talking of his great contemporaries, Tennyson, Meredith, Swinburne, Rossetti, Morris, Matthew Arnold, Borrow, there would creep into his voice a note of reminiscent sadness; but it always seemed poetic rather than personal. It may be said that he never really grew up, that his spirit never tired. His laugh was as youthful as the hearty “My dear fellow,” ...

— Old Familiar Faces • Theodore Watts-Dunton

... not tell them—that is none except my true friends. If I did, they would hover round me and want to borrow money, or get me to take them out West with me. So I have hit upon a plan. I shall want to use money, but I will pretend ...

— Cast Upon the Breakers • Horatio Alger

... considerations of conventional morality. If he considers that champagne would be good for a poor patient he ought to recommend him to take champagne; he is not called upon to consider whether the patient will beg, borrow, or steal the champagne. But, after all, even if that be admitted, it must still be said that the physician knows that the champagne, however obtained, is not likely to be poisonous. When, however, he ...

— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... the statement in Strype, which I borrow from Dr. Zouch's second edition of Walton's ...

— Notes & Queries, No. 24. Saturday, April 13. 1850 • Various

... be, it was the Primate's part to speak for the conquered race the words it could no longer utter. He was in fact the permanent leader (to borrow a modern phrase) of a Constitutional Opposition; and in addition to the older religious forces which he wielded he wielded a popular and democratic force which held the new King and the new baronage in check. It was he who received from the sovereign ...

— Stray Studies from England and Italy • John Richard Green

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