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| Language: | Old English |
| Origin: | borgian |
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bor‧row S2 W3
[intransitive and transitive]
[intransitive and transitive]1 to use something that belongs to someone else and that you must give back to them later [↪ lend, loan]: Can I borrow your pen for a minute?
Can I borrow your pen for a minute?2 to take or copy someone's ideas, words etc and use them in your own work, language etc To borrow a phrase (=use what someone else has said), if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.
borrow something from somebody/something I borrowed my ideas from Eliot's famous poem 'The Waste Land'.
I borrowed my ideas from Eliot's famous poem 'The Waste Land'.To borrow a phrase (=use what someone else has said), if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.