BORROW | Meaning, Definition In Cambridge English Dictionary

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Meaning of borrow in English borrowverb uk /ˈbɒr.əʊ/ us /ˈbɑːr.oʊ/

borrow verb (RECEIVE)

Add to word list Add to word list A2 [ T ] to get or receive something from someone with the intention of giving it back after a period of time: borrow something from someone I had to borrow a pen from the invigilator to do the exam.UK non-standard Can I borrow £100 off you until next week? She used to borrow money and not bother to pay it back.borrow something from something He borrowed a novel from the library. C1 [ I or T ] to take money from a bank or other financial organization and pay it back over a period of time: borrow heavily Like so many companies at that time, we had to borrow heavily to survive.borrow something from something We could always borrow some money from the bank. [ T ] to take and use a word or idea from another language or piece of work: borrow something from something English has borrowed many words from French.borrow heavily from She has created new string sounds that borrow heavily from folk and jazz.
  • Can I borrow a couple of bucks?
  • Do you have a Birmingham to London train timetable that I could borrow?
  • You have to sign books out when you borrow them from the library.
  • He's a bit possessive about his CDs - I wouldn't dare ask to borrow them.
  • Just because I'm lending you my dress for tonight doesn't mean you can borrow it whenever you want to.
Borrowing & lending
  • amortizable
  • amortization
  • bankruptcy filer
  • BB
  • begging bowl
  • debt
  • lending rate
  • leveraged
  • liability
  • liquidation
  • liquidity
  • microcredit
  • payable
  • receiver
  • syndicate
  • toxic debt
  • tracker
  • unamortized
  • uncollectable
  • uncollectible
See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Writing & typing

borrow verb (MATHEMATICS)

[ T ] to put a number into a different column when doing subtraction Addition, subtraction, multiplication & division
  • add
  • add (something) up phrasal verb
  • addition sign
  • additive
  • arithmetical
  • deduction
  • half
  • halve
  • highest common factor
  • long division
  • power
  • quintuple
  • quotient
  • recursion
  • round something down phrasal verb
  • sextuple
  • square
  • subtraction sign
  • table
  • treble
See more results »

Related words

borrower borrowing

Grammar

Lend or borrow?Lend means ‘give something to someone for a short time, expecting that you will get it back’. The past simple and the -ed form are lent: …

Idiom

live on borrowed time (Definition of borrow from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

borrow | American Dictionary

borrowverb [ I/T ] us /ˈbɑr·oʊ, ˈbɔr-/ Add to word list Add to word list to take something from someone with the intention of giving it back after using it: [ T ] Could I borrow your bike until next week? [ T ] fig. We constantly borrow words from other cultures.

borrower

noun [ C ] us /ˈbɑr·ə·wər, ˈbɔr-/ The rate charged to borrowers is 9.7%.

borrowing

noun [ C/U ] us /ˈbɑr·ə·wɪŋ, ˈbɔr-/ [ U ] Jefferson opposed government borrowing. (Definition of borrow from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

borrow | Business English

borrowverb [ I or T ] uk /ˈbɒrəʊ/ us Add to word list Add to word list FINANCE, BANKING to take money from a bank or other financial organization with the intention of paying it back over a period of time, usually with interest added on: He will have to borrow £300 million to make his controversial takeover bid successful. Find out how much you can afford to borrow before you decide to buy a house.borrow from sth If you borrow from a credit card, the interest can be 20%.borrow sth from sth This is a way of borrowing money from international financial markets. Countries who had borrowed heavily to pay for oil imports were hit hard. to ask someone to give you money for a period of time, after which you intend to give it back to them: Can I borrow £20? I'll pay you back tomorrow.borrow (sth) from sb He borrowed some money from a friend.

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lend

Phrasal verb

borrow against (Definition of borrow from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of borrow

borrow Where meanings have changed, or terms have been borrowed from other disciplines, the most current usage is indicated. From the Cambridge English Corpus Have you borrowed a friend's or colleague's copy, are you reading in a library or are you at the bottom of a long circulation list? From the Cambridge English Corpus Have you borrowed a friend's or colleague's copy? From the Cambridge English Corpus On two of these, increased taxation and sound borrowing out of actual savings, he felt no further action could usefully be done. From the Cambridge English Corpus However, they can give us some insights into students' borrowing behaviour and, by inference, which student groups (and potential students) may be debt averse. From the Cambridge English Corpus To just lump them under an umbrella label of ' borrowing ' or ' calquing ' is an oversimplification which obscures the different possible historical scenarios for each case. From the Cambridge English Corpus Liberal feminists borrowed the rhetoric of unjust exclusion and applied it to their own case. From the Cambridge English Corpus The words of the burlesque's song are cleverly structured to echo the rhymes of the borrowed tune. From the Cambridge English Corpus The role of borrowing in the justification of phonological grammars. From the Cambridge English Corpus Many of the ideas used to good effect in computational syntax, most strikingly various versions of feature inheritance, have been borrowed from programming languages. From the Cambridge English Corpus The paper points out that borrowing is optimal in some circumstances. From the Cambridge English Corpus Choreographers borrowed the plots, characters and usually the titles of the original works, copying much of the action scene by scene. From the Cambridge English Corpus There is no working definition of the difference between borrowing and code-switching (admittedly a nearly impossible goal), but the examples include both phenomena. From the Cambridge English Corpus The final paper, somewhat inconclusively, treats the issue of the extent to which borrowed words "fill gaps" in the existing lexicon. From the Cambridge English Corpus First, the intermediation process modeled here has no direct implications for the cost of borrowing to obtain consumption goods. From the Cambridge English Corpus See all examples of borrow These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors. What is the pronunciation of borrow?

Translations of borrow

in Chinese (Traditional) 接受, 借，借入, （向…）借貸… See more in Chinese (Simplified) 接受, 借，借入, （向…）借贷… See more in Spanish tomar prestado, pedir prestado, pedir un préstamo… See more in Portuguese tomar emprestado, pedir emprestado, pegar emprestado/-da… See more in Marathi in Japanese in Turkish in French in Catalan in Dutch in Tamil in Hindi in Gujarati in Danish in Swedish in Malay in German in Norwegian in Urdu in Ukrainian in Telugu in Bengali in Czech in Indonesian in Thai in Vietnamese in Polish in Korean in Italian उसने आणणे, कर्ज… See more （物）を借りる, （金）を借りる, 借金する… See more ödünç almak, borç almak, borçlanmak… See more emprunter… See more manllevar… See more lenen… See more ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட காலத்திற்குப் பிறகு திருப்பித் தரும் எண்ணத்துடன் ஒருவரிடமிருந்து எதையாவது பெறுவது அல்லது வாங்குவது, ஒரு வங்கி அல்லது பிற நிதி நிறுவனத்திடமிருந்து பணத்தை எடுத்து, காலப்போக்கில் அதை திருப்பிச் செலுத்துதல்… See more (कुछ समय के लिए कोई वस्तु) उधार लेना, (बैंक या किसी संस्था से कोई राशी) कर्ज़ लेना… See more ઉછીનું, ઉછીનું લેવું… See more låne… See more låna… See more pinjam… See more leihen… See more låne… See more ادھار لینا, مستعار لینا, قرض لینا… See more позичати… See more ఏదైనా వస్తువు అరువు/అప్పు తీసుకొను, డబ్బు అరువు/అప్పు తీసుకొను… See more ধার নেওয়া, নির্দিষ্ট সময়ের পরে ফেরত দেওয়ার অভিপ্রায়ে কারও কাছ থেকে কিছু নেওয়া বা পাওয়া, একটি ব্যাঙ্ক বা অন্য আর্থিক সংস্থা থেকে টাকা নেওয়া এবং নির্দিষ্ট সময়ের মধ্যে তা ফেরত দেওয়া… See more (vy)půjčit si… See more meminjam… See more ยืม… See more mượn… See more pożyczać, Nie mylić z lend, zapożyczać… See more (물건)-을 빌려쓰다, (돈을) 빌리다… See more prendere in/a prestito, prendere in prestito… See more Need a translator?

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born-again borne boron borough borrow borrow against phrasal verb borrow heavily borrow heavily from something borrow something from something {{#randomImageQuizHook.filename}} {{#randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes Try a quiz now {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{^randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.filename}}

More meanings of borrow

  • over-borrow
  • borrow heavily
  • borrow something from something
  • borrow heavily from something
  • General Arrangements to Borrow
  • borrow against phrasal verb
  • beg, borrow, or steal idiom
See all meanings
  • borrow against phrasal verb
See all phrasal verb meanings
  • beg, borrow, or steal idiom

Word of the Day

stuffed up

UK /ˌstʌft ˈʌp/ US /ˌstʌft ˈʌp/

If you are stuffed up, your nose is blocked with mucus, usually because you have a cold.

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  • English   
    • Verb 
      • borrow (RECEIVE)
      • borrow (MATHEMATICS)
  • American   
    • Verb 
      • borrow
    • Noun 
      • borrower
      • borrowing
  • Business   Verb
  • Examples
  • Translations
  • Grammar
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