Word.ws English Dictionary

neither a borrower nor a lender be

neither a borrower nor a lender be proverb: it is not good to borrow money from anybody, lest you will lose their trust and friendship.

Proverb

neither a borrower nor a lender be

  1. It is not good to borrow money from anybody, lest you will lose their trust and friendship.

Origin of neither a borrower nor a lender be

From Act 1, Scene 3 of the play Hamlet.

Questions about neither a borrower nor a lender be

What does neither a borrower nor a lender be mean?
Neither a borrower nor a lender be means it is not good to borrow money from anybody, lest you will lose their trust and friendship.
What part of speech is neither a borrower nor a lender be?
Neither a borrower nor a lender be is a proverb.

Words near neither a borrower nor a lender be in the dictionary

  1. neist
  2. Neiswender
  3. Neiswenders
  4. Neith
  5. neither
  6. neither a borrower nor a lender be
  7. neither employed nor retired
  8. neither fish nor flesh
  9. neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring
  10. neither fish nor fowl
  11. neither fish, flesh, nor fowl

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: neither a borrower nor a lender be (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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