borrowing

American

[bor-oh-ing, bawr-] / ˈbɒr oʊ ɪŋ, ˈbɔr- /

noun

the act of one who borrows.
the process by which something, as a word or custom, is adopted or absorbed.
the result of such a process; something borrowed, as a foreign word or phrase or a custom.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

borrowings

plural

Etymology

Origin of borrowing

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at borrow, -ing ¹

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:

borrowing borrowings

"This is not merely a matter of borrowing money; it is about shaping the very structure and direction of the nation's development."

From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2026

Indeed the Thai finance minister was boasting to me of how little his borrowing costs had gone up, especially in relation to the US.

From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026

And beauty is relative, especially when it comes to borrowing.

From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026

Economic damage from high energy prices and rising borrowing costs is mounting globally, splitting the world into a new set of winners and losers as countries with limited exposure to the artificial-intelligence boom fall behind.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

This, then, was how Voldemort had tested the defenses surrounding the Horcrux: by borrowing a disposable creature, a house-elf...

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

Given the bank’s roughly 341 trillion rupiah of repo, borrowings, interbank liabilities and securities issued, these sources increase its sensitivity to market conditions and rollover requirements.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

Remarkably, these offers continue to exist even while interest rates rise across the rest of the economy on both borrowings and savings.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026

The club's latest quarterly figures showed total borrowings of £1.29bn, including outstanding transfer fees.

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

If that happens, he said, it could raise bills for electric customers since the utility may have to pay a higher interest rate for new borrowings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

They took turns reciting Homeric genealogies, full of falsifications and borrowings from real life, and sometimes they fought over this or that favorite real uncle or aunt, and had to bargain like casting directors.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023