Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Language: Old English
Origin: borgian

borrow

 verb
     
bor‧row S2 W3 [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?
borrow something from somebody
You are allowed to borrow six books from the library at a time.
They borrowed heavily (=borrowed a lot of money) from the bank to start their new business.
! Do not confuse borrow and lend (=give someone permission to use something of yours): I borrowed his bike. | Can you lend me your pen?
2 to take or copy someone's ideas, words etc and use them in your own work, language etc
borrow something from somebody/something
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.
borrow from
English has borrowed words from many languages.
3

borrow trouble

American English informal to worry about something when it is not necessary

➔ be living on borrowed time

at live1 (17)

➔ beg, borrow, or steal

at beg (8)
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
 
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