borrow

Syllables: bor·rowUK/ˈbɒɹəʊ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northumbria/ˈbɒɹə/

borrow verb: to receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it.

Verb

borrow (third-person singular simple present borrows, present participle borrowing, simple past and past participle borrowed)

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
To receive money from a bank or other lender under the agreement that the lender will be paid back over time.
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
Synonyms:

adopt, use
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
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.
(Malaysia, Singapore, West-Midlands, proscribed, Upper Midwestern US) 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.”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
(ditransitive) 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
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]...
(obsolete except in ballads) To secure the release of (someone) from prison.
- 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)
(informal) To receive (something, usually of trifling value) from somebody, with little possibility of returning it.
- Can I borrow a sheet of paper?
(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.
To adjust one's aim in order to compensate for the slope of the green.

Noun (1)

borrow (countable and uncountable, plural borrows)

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
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.1979, The Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin
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

Noun (2)

borrow (plural borrows)

(archaic) A ransom; a pledge or guarantee.
(archaic) A surety; someone standing bail.
- ”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

Proper noun capitalized: Borrow

Borrow (plural Borrows)

A surname.
- George Borrow wrote novels and travelogues based on his experiences travelling around Europe.

borrow meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

borrow in Hindi

receive temporarily: उधार लेना udhār lenā

borrow in Urdu

to borrow: ادهار لینا udhār lenā, مانگنا māṅgnā
borrow: ادھار لینا udḥār leynā

borrow in Bengali

ধার করা, ঋণ নেওয়া

More languagesFewer languages

borrow in Telugu: అప్పుచేయు appucēyu, అప్పు చేయు appu cēyu
borrow in Malayalam: കടം വാങ്ങുക kaṭaṁ vāṅṅuka
borrow in Kannada: ಎರೆ, ಸಾಲ ಪಡೆ, ಎರವಲು ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳು, ಕಡ ಪಡೆ
borrow in Punjabi: ਮੰਗਣਾ maṅgṇā, منگنا maṉgṇā
borrow in Gujarati: ઉછીના લેવા માટે
borrow in Odia: ଲାଗିବା lāgibā
borrow in Nepali: उधारो लिनुहोस्
borrow in Tagalog: humiram, manghiram, hiramin, hiraman
borrow in Arabic: اِسْتَعَارَ istaʕāra
borrow in Malay: pinjam
borrow in Persian: قرض گرفتن qarz gereftan
borrow in Thai: ยืม yʉʉm, ขอยืม kɔ̌ɔ-yʉʉm, กู้ gûu
borrow in Vietnamese: mượn, vay
borrow in Myanmar: ငှား hnga:

Examples of borrow in a sentence

Dryden’s form is of course borrowed from the ancients1881, William Minto, Margaret Bryant, “John Dryden”, in Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition:
'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:

All 40 example sentences with borrow

Synonyms of borrow

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of borrow

Forms of borrow

Verb
third-person singular present	borrows
present participle	borrowing
past participle	borrowed
past	borrowed
alternative Jamaica	boro
second-person singular present (archaic)	borrowest
second-person singular past (archaic)	borrowedst
third-person singular present (archaic)	borroweth
Noun
plural	borrows
Proper noun
plural	Borrows

Past tense of borrow: borrowed

Plural of borrow: borrows

Origin of borrow

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.

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).

Words formed from borrow

Phrases with borrow

Words that rhyme with borrow

Questions about borrow

What does borrow mean?: Borrow means to receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it.
What is borrow in Hindi?: Borrow in Hindi is उधार लेना (udhār lenā). See Borrow meaning in Hindi.
How do you use borrow in a sentence?: Dryden’s form is of course borrowed from the ancients
What part of speech is borrow?: Borrow can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce borrow?: Borrow is pronounced /ˈbɒɹəʊ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of borrow?: The past tense of borrow is borrowed.

Words near borrow in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-borrow.ogg.

Cite this entry: “borrow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/borrow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.