lend

Formslends, lending, lent

Plurallends

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To allow someone to use something temporarily, on condition that it or its equivalent is returned.

   I will only lend you the car if you bring it back with a full tank.

   The library lends e-readers as well as books.

   UsageLend someone something, or lend something to someone; the past form is lent. The other person borrows from you.

   Similarloan

   Oppositeborrow

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To make a loan of money or goods.

   Online platforms match those who want to borrow with those who want to lend.

   After the crash the banks simply stopped lending.

   UsageLend to a borrower at a rate: banks lend to small firms at 6 percent.

   Similarloan

   Oppositeborrow

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To afford, grant, or contribute something, especially a quality or support.

   Her calm voice lent a sense of order to the busy meeting.

   Fresh flowers and soft lighting lend warmth to even a small apartment.

   UsageSet phrases: lend a hand, lend support, lend your name to. Things lend a quality to something: flowers lend warmth to a room.

   Similargive, add, impart, contribute, bestow

   Note

   Here the loan is figurative, and nothing is expected back. Things can lend too: in John Addington Symonds's Sir Philip Sidney (1886), mountain lines lend space and largeness to compositions. The grammar stays that of the ordinary loan, as in lend me some assistance, and it is old: in Addison's Cato a speaker begs of Cato, lend me for a while thy patience.

4. 4
   verbreflexivetransitive

   To be suitable or applicable; to fit, used reflexively.

   The long history of the region does not lend itself to a simple interpretation.

   Her prose lends itself to translation in a way her verse never has.

   UsageUsually lends itself to or lend themselves to + a noun or -ing form: it lends itself well to film.

   Similarsuit

5. 5
   verbnonstandardtransitive

   To borrow: a proscribed use.

   Can I lend twenty dollars off you until Friday?

   The character asks to lend a cigarette, and the usage marks him at once.

   UsageTo take, say borrow: can I borrow twenty dollars from you? To give, say lend.

   Similarborrow

   Note

   A reversal of direction, in which lend means taking rather than giving.

6. 6
   noundialectalwith the

   A loan; permission to borrow something, chiefly dialectal, with the.

   You've only the lend of them clothes, the ballad's Arthur says.

   The diarist asked the lend of eight and six for a month.

   Similarloan, use

   Note

   The ballad Arthur McBride tells a man he has only the lend of his clothes. Walkden's diary asks the lend of 8s. 6d. for a month, and Ronan Casey's 2008 biography of Joe Dolan shows the noun still alive.

7. 7
   noundialectalUKcountable

   The loins, flank, or buttocks of a person or animal.

   The old butcher cut from the lend and called it the best of the beast.

   She sat down heavy on her lends and would not be moved.

   Similarloin, rump, haunch, flank

   Note

   A British dialect word, and the wider of the two body senses: it is said of animals as readily as of people and takes in the flank and buttocks, not just the back. The lumbar sense points at the small of the back; this one spreads outward and downward.

8. 8
   noundialectalUKcountable

   The lumbar region or loin: British dialect.

   She tied the shawl round her lend to keep the cold off.

   A strain in the lend kept the ploughman from his work for a week.

   Similarloin

   Note

   A homonym, not a use of the lending verb. The two words share a spelling only because the lending verb later added a -d to earlier len. In British dialect, a strain in the lend is a bad back, and nothing borrowed.

Showing meanings only. Show all 8