# lend

Pronunciation: say "LEND" /lɛnd/

## Verb

1. To allow someone to use something temporarily, on condition that it or its equivalent is returned.
   - Simple: To let someone use something of yours for a while, expecting to get it back.
   - _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._
2. To make a loan of money or goods.
   - Simple: To give out loans.
   - _Online platforms match those who want to borrow with those who want to lend._
   - _After the crash the banks simply stopped lending._
3. To afford, grant, or contribute something, especially a quality or support.
   - Simple: To give or add something, such as help or a quality.
   - _Her calm voice lent a sense of order to the busy meeting._
   - _Fresh flowers and soft lighting lend warmth to even a small apartment._
4. To be suitable or applicable; to fit, used reflexively.
   - Simple: To be right or useful for a particular purpose. Used with itself, themselves, and so on.
   - _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._
5. To borrow: a proscribed use. *(nonstandard)*
   - Simple: Used by some speakers to mean borrow. Most people think this is a mistake.
   - _Can I lend twenty dollars off you until Friday?_
   - _The character asks to lend a cigarette, and the usage marks him at once._

## Noun

6. A loan; permission to borrow something, chiefly dialectal, with the. *(dialectal)*
   - Simple: In some dialects, a loan. Used 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._
7. The loins, flank, or buttocks of a person or animal. *(dialectal, UK)*
   - Simple: In some parts of Britain, the lower back or hips 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._
8. The lumbar region or loin: British dialect. *(dialectal, UK)*
   - Simple: In British dialect, the lower back.
   - _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._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–6** — From Middle English lenen, from Old English lǣnan ("to lend, give, grant, lease"), with an added -d as in "sound" and "round". It goes back to Proto-Germanic and ultimately a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to leave, leave over", and is related to Dutch lenen, Swedish låna, and the word "loan".
**Meanings 7–8** — From Middle English lende (often plural, as in lendes), from Old English lenden ("loin"), from Proto-Germanic and ultimately a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "loin, kidney". It is related to German Lenden, Dutch lendenen, and Latin lumbus ("loin"), the source of "loin".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/lend (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).