lent

[ lent ]
See synonyms for lent on Thesaurus.com
verb
  1. simple past tense and past participle of lend.

Other words from lent

  • un·lent, adjective
  • well-lent, adjective

Words Nearby lent

Other definitions for Lent (2 of 3)

Lent
[ lent ]

noun
  1. (in the Christian religion) an annual season of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday and lasting 40 weekdays to Easter, observed by Roman Catholic, Anglican, and certain other churches.

Origin of Lent

2
First recorded before 900; Middle English leynte, Old English læncte “spring, springtime, Lent,” literally, “lengthening (of daylight hours)”; cognate with Dutch lente(n), German Lenz “spring” (only English has the ecclesiastical sense); see origin at Lenten,long1

Other words from Lent

  • post-Lent, adjective

Other definitions for -lent (3 of 3)

-lent

  1. a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, variant of -ulent: pestilent.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use lent in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for lent (1 of 2)

lent

/ (lɛnt) /


verb
  1. the past tense and past participle of lend

British Dictionary definitions for Lent (2 of 2)

Lent

/ (lɛnt) /


noun
  1. Christianity the period of forty weekdays lasting from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, observed as a time of penance and fasting commemorating Jesus' fasting in the wilderness

  2. (modifier) falling within or associated with the season before Easter: Lent observance

  1. (plural) (at Cambridge University) Lent term boat races

Origin of Lent

2
Old English lencten, lengten spring, literally: lengthening (of hours of daylight)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for Lent

Lent

In Christianity, a time of fasting and repentance in the spring, beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending several weeks later on Easter.

Notes for Lent

To “give something up for Lent” is to abandon a pleasurable habit as an act of devotion and self-discipline.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.