borrow
verb (used with object)
to take or obtain with the promise to return the same or an equivalent.
borrow
1 American
[bor-oh, bawr-oh]
/ ˈbɒr oʊ, ˈbɔr oʊ /
verb (used with object)
-
borrows,
present (3rd person singular)
-
borrowed,
past participle, past
-
borrowing
present participle
-
to take or obtain with the promise to return the same or an equivalent.
Our neighbor borrowed my lawn mower.
-
to use, appropriate, or introduce from another source or from a foreign source.
to borrow an idea from the opposition;
to borrow a word from French.
-
Arithmetic. (in subtraction) to take from one denomination and add to the next lower.
verb (used without object)
-
borrows,
present (3rd person singular)
-
borrowed,
past participle, past
-
borrowing
present participle
-
to borrow something.
Don't borrow unless you intend to repay.
-
Nautical.
-
to sail close to the wind; luff.
-
to sail close to the shore.
-
-
Golf. to putt on other than a direct line from the lie of the ball to the hole, to compensate for the incline or roll of the green.
idioms
Borrow
2
American
[bor-oh, bawr-oh]
/ ˈbɒr oʊ, ˈbɔr oʊ /
noun
borrow
1
British
/ ˈbɒrəʊ /
verb
-
to obtain or receive (something, such as money) on loan for temporary use, intending to give it, or something equivalent or identical, back to the lender
-
to adopt (ideas, words, etc) from another source; appropriate
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not_standard to lend
-
golf to putt the ball uphill of the direct path to the hole
-
(intr) golf (of a ball) to deviate from a straight path because of the slope of the ground
noun
-
golf a deviation of a ball from a straight path because of the slope of the ground
a left borrow
-
material dug from a borrow pit to provide fill at another
-
-
living an unexpected extension of life
-
close to death
-
Borrow
2
British
/ ˈbɒrəʊ /
noun
borrow
More Idioms
Usage
The use of off after borrow was formerly considered incorrect, but is now acceptable in informal contexts
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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borrowernoun
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nonborrowernoun
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overborrowverb
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Borrovianadjective
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borrowableadjective
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nonborrowedadjective
-
unborrowedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
borrowsimple
-
borrowssimple
-
have borrowedperfect
-
has borrowedperfect
-
am borrowingprogressive
-
are borrowingprogressive
-
is borrowingprogressive
-
have been borrowingperfect progressive
-
has been borrowingperfect progressive
Past
-
borrowedsimple
-
had borrowedperfect
-
was borrowingprogressive
-
were borrowingprogressive
-
had been borrowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of borrow
First recorded before 900; Middle English borowen, Old English borgian “to borrow, lend,” verb derivative of borg “a pledge”; cognate with Dutch borg “a pledge,” borgen “to charge, give credit,” German Borg “credit,” borgen “to take on credit”
Explanation
The word borrow means to take something and use it temporarily. You can borrow a book from the library, or borrow twenty bucks from your mom, or even borrow an idea from your friend. Usually , borrow implies taking something temporarily and returning it later. However, you can borrow non-physical things and adopt them as your own. For example, the English language has borrowed many words from other languages — such as Latin and Greek — but those words were never "given back." If you're subtracting numbers, you might have to borrow from the tens column to complete the problem.
Vocabulary lists containing borrow
List 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Most of the cost of a wind or solar farm comes up front, so developers must borrow heavily before they generate any power.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2026
Hyperscalers in the past few decades carried almost no debt, but they have raced to borrow in the past year to finance chips, data centers and computing infrastructure.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 9, 2026
But as Uncle Sam pays more to borrow, that’s affecting private balance sheets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Qualified buyers can borrow up to 17% of the price of the home while contributing 3% of the down payment from their own funds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
Day and night, they printed thousands of new, even bolder, leaflets on a hand-cranked duplicating machine, possibly purchased with the money Sophie asked to borrow from Fritz.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Borrow a few inches from the precarious ledge beside the table.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
Searching on sites like AllBorrow and Borrow the Bazaar, the standard price to rent one outfit for eight days is between $120 and $200.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026
The fund’s use of debt via New Arrangements to Borrow requires 85% approval of voting shares.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
Tricolor isn’t a private credit fund, but its businesses was built on the same idea: Borrow money from banks, lend it to borrowers who don’t have access to bank financing—for a high yield.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2025
“Even though it’s a loan company, it’s never made any loans. Not one. It just borrows money from one bank and pays it back to another. That’s all it does. Borrow and pay back.”
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
It borrows medicine’s costume without the people and safeguards that make medicine work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
Italy, despite its much larger debt, now borrows at cheaper rates than France.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
The character design, which borrows from anime, is elegant and a little odd — hands and feet are drawn tiny, which has the paradoxical effect of drawing your attention, making them more expressive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
But Crandall said that in the long run, it will raise the interest rates on money the government borrows, increasing the cost to taxpayers.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
In The Hague, Vincent borrows a hundred guilders from Mauve, because the money Theo has sent is not enough.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
Hyperscalers and “neocloud” companies have borrowed hand over fist to fund their AI ambitions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026
It also borrowed, raising $28.7 billion from a note sale in the third quarter.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 4, 2026
There are different affordability checks for different purchases, partially based on how much is borrowed.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
That moment, a brief section of a borrowed song from a washed-up and dying man, carries more weight than even the most faithful AI recreation or iteration.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026
She borrowed nearly every book on magical objects from the library and even brought a few from Director Fokus’s personal collection, but hardly any of them mention the Black Book.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
Rising prices point to the Fed increasing borrowing costs before Christmas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
Ryan Serhant is warning would-be homebuyers against assuming that lower mortgage rates will deliver an easier path to homeownership in 2027—and says the housing market has a problem that cheaper borrowing alone cannot solve.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 9, 2026
The borrowing binge makes global markets even riskier and complicates the ability of central banks to step in to help.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026
To make matters worse, the Bank of Japan has embarked on a period of interest rate increases to battle inflation, with borrowing costs at a more than 30-year high and likely to go up again.
From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2026
“Back to the apartment. We’ve got one more day there and then my mom’s borrowing someone’s truck so we can move our stuff to Michael’s lovely place.”
From "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" by Ann Braden
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
