Etymology : Middle English borwen, from Old English borgian; akin to Old English beorgan to preserve; more at BURY
Pronunciation : bär-(")O, bor-
Function : verb
Date : before 12th century
1. take on loan; copy; steal. borrow\bor"row\, n.
2. something deposited as security; a pledge; a surety; a hostage. [obs.] ye may retain as borrows my two priests. w. scott.
3. the act of borrowing. [obs.] of your royal presence i'll adventure the borrow of a week.borrow \bor"row\ , v. t. [imp. & p. p. borrowed ; p. pr. & vb. n. borrowing.] [oe. borwen, as. borgian, fr. borg, borh, pledge; akin to d. borg, g. borg; prob. fr. root of as. beorgan to protect.
4. see:
1st borough.].
5. to receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; -- the opposite of lend.
6. (arith.) to take (one or more) from the next higher denomination in order to add it to the next lower; -- a term of subtraction when the figure of the subtrahend is larger than the corresponding one of the minuend.
7. to copy or imitate; to adopt; as, to borrow the style, manner, or opinions of another. rites borrowed from the ancients. it is not hard for any man, who hath a bible in his hands, to borrow good words and holy sayings in abundance; but to make them his own is a work of grace only from above.
8. to feign or counterfeit. "borrowed hair." the borrowed majesty of england.
9. to receive; to take; to derive. any drop thou borrowedst from thy mother.
10. To receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; the opposite of lend.
11. To take from the next higher denomination in order to add it to the next lower; a term of subtraction when the figure of the subtrahend is larger than the corresponding one of the minuend.
12. To copy or imitate; to adopt; as, to borrow the style, manner, or opinions of another.
13. To feign or counterfeit.
14. To receive; to take; to derive.
15. Something deposited as security; a pledge; a surety; a hostage.
16. The act of borrowing. get temporarily; "May I borrow your lawn mower?".
17. 1. If you borrow something that belongs to someone else, you take it or use it for a period of time, usually with their permission. Can I borrow a pen please? He wouldn't let me borrow his clothes. ¡Ù lend.
18. If you borrow money from someone or from a bank, they give it to you and you agree to pay it back at some time in the future. Morgan borrowed £5,000 from his father to form the company 20 years ago It's so expensive to borrow from finance companies He borrowed heavily to get the money together.
19. If you borrow a book from a library, you take it away for a fixed period of time. I couldn't afford to buy any, so I borrowed them from the library.
20. If you borrow something such as a word or an idea from another language or from another person's work, you use it in your own language or work. I borrowed his words for my book's title Their engineers are happier borrowing other people's ideas than developing their own.
21. Someone who is living on borrowed time or who is on borrowed time has continued to live or to do something for longer than was expected, and is likely to die or be stopped from doing it soon. Perhaps that illness, diagnosed as fatal, gave him a sense of living on borrowed time.