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Definition of "borrow" []

  • To obtain or receive (something) on loan with the promise or understanding of returning it or its equivalent. (verb-transitive)
  • To adopt or use as one's own: I borrowed your good idea. (verb-transitive)
  • In subtraction, to take a unit from the next larger denomination in the minuend so as to make a number larger than the number to be subtracted. (verb-transitive)
  • Linguistics To adopt (a word) from one language to use in another. (verb-transitive)
  • To obtain or receive something. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "borrow" in a sentence
  • "Meanwhile, the witnesses of the rural wedding had all skedaddled -- to borrow a Greek word -- into the woods, in dire confusion, tearing dresses, pulling down 'back hair,' hitching hoop skirts, and tumbling over blackberry vines -- but each intent on increasing the distance from the mad cow."
  • "A gallery of idols with delicious flat chests, or to borrow a Japanese word, petanko."
  • "Yes, we should all work together and the government should help where appropriate, but the government can only provide help with money we give them except when they borrow from the future."