Verb

Infinitive to borrow

Third person singular borrows

Simple past borrowed

Past participle borrowed

Present participle borrowing

to borrow (third-person singular simple present borrows, present participle borrowing, simple past and past participle borrowed)

1. To receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it.
2. To adopt (an idea) as one's own.
3. (linguistics) To copy a word from another language.
4. (arithmetic) In a subtraction, to deduct (one) from a digit of the minuend and add ten to the following digit, in order that the subtraction of a larger digit in the subtrahend from the digit in the minuend to which ten is added gives a positive result.

Synonyms

• (adopt): adopt, use

Antonyms

• (receive temporarily): give back (exchanging the transfer of ownership), lend (exchanging the owners), return (exchanging the transfer of ownership)
• (in arithmetic): carry (the equivalent reverse procedure in the inverse operation of addition)

Derived terms

• borrowed time
• borrower

Borrow or borrowing can mean: to receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it.

• In finance, monetary debt
• In language, the use of loanwords
• In arithmetic, when a digit become smaller than limit and the deficiency is taken from the next digit to the left
• In music, the use of borrowed chords
• In the Discworld fictional universe - "the art of overlaying one's hi mind on the mind of another creature so that she can see through its eyes and steer its actions" as practised by the character Granny Weatherwax

• In construction, borrow pit.

People

• David Borrow
• George Borrow
• Nik Borrow, bird artist

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