Pronunciations (5)
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/ˈbɒɹəʊ/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈbɒɹə/
Pronunciation notes
- Northumbria
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/ˈbɔɹo/
Pronunciation notes
- Scotland
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/ˈbɑɹ.oʊ/
Pronunciation notes
- Canada
- General-American
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/ˈboɹ.oʊ/
Pronunciation notes
- dialectal
Verb
To receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
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.
- Examples
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to borrow the style, manner, or opinions of another
More examples (1)
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.
Dryden’s form is of course borrowed from the ancients
To adopt a word from another language.
- Examples
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Americans, for example, call newcomers to Antarctica “fingies”, which comes from FNGs – a borrowed military abbreviation that means “Fucking New Guy”.
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.
To lend.
Usage- Malaysia
- Singapore
- West-Midlands
- proscribed
- Examples
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“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.”
More examples (1)
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. […]
Samson, with all the cunning of a rhetorical master, cornered him. 'Then can my young son borrow me his old rifle?'
More examples (5)
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.
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?"
“Ryan, borrow me your lunch pail so we can fill it with blueberries. Susie can make us a pie.”
Georgi reached for his empty pockets. “Can you borrow me your telephone?”
“Gaia, could you borrow me your pencils ,^([sic]) today, if you do not use them?”
To temporarily obtain (something) for (someone).
Usage- Ditransitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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.
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.
I went out and borrowed him a night cap; put him my night shirt on, and wrapped him in a blanket.
More examples (2)
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.
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.
To feign or counterfeit.
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borrowed hair
the borrowed majesty of England
To secure the release of (someone) from prison.
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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.
To receive (something, usually of trifling value) from somebody, with little possibility of returning it.
Usage- Informal
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Can I borrow a sheet of paper?
To interrupt the current activity of (a person) and lead them away in order to speak with them, get their help, etc.
Usage- Informal
- Examples
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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
Deviation of the path of a rolling ball from a straight line; slope; slant.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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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, […]
More examples (1)
[…] slippery contours, so that in making a side hill putt more than the usual amount of borrow had to be considered.
A borrow pit.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
In Rust and some other programming languages, the situation where the ownership of a value is temporarily transferred to another region of code.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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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).
Noun
A ransom; a pledge or guarantee.
Usage- Archaic
A surety; someone standing bail.
Usage- Archaic
- Examples
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More examples (1)
”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.”
Verb
get temporarily
- Antonyms
- Examples
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May I borrow your lawn mower?
take up and practice as one's own