borrow
Pronunciation
[change]- (UK) enPR: /bŏrʹō/, IPA (key): /ˈbɒrəʊ/, SAMPA: /"bQr@U/
- (US) enPR: bärʹō, IPA (key): /ˈbɑroʊ/, SAMPA: /"bAroU/
Audio (US) (file)
Verb
[change]|
Plain form |
Third-person singular |
Past tense |
Past participle |
Present participle |
- (transitive & intransitive) If you borrow something from someone, you use it and then you give it back to them.
- Governments need to make it easier for students to borrow money for school.
- The company has also borrowed heavily from the Boston Federal Reserve Bank – some $1.6 billion last month alone.
- Can I borrow your car and show my dad I can drive?
- (transitive & intransitive) If you borrow words or ideas from somebody, you use them in your own writing or speaking.
- Many people want to throw the war "down the memory hole", to borrow a phrase from Orwell's 1984.
- The choreographer borrowed a number from Swan Lake for his satirical ballet called Birds in Ballet.