lending

Plurallendings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act or practice of letting someone use money or property that they agree to return or repay.

   The bank tightened its lending sharply after the financial crisis.

   Responsible lending requires assessing whether a borrower can realistically repay.

   Similarcredit, financing

   Oppositeborrowing

   Note

   A noun that counts both ways. As a mass noun it names the whole practice, often narrowed by a modifier that marks the kind: peer-to-peer lending, which The Economist in 2013 described as bringing together savers and borrowers on online platforms. As a count noun it names single acts and takes a plural, lendings, though the uncountable use is the one finance leans on.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of lend.

   The neighbors are lending us their lawn mower for the weekend.

   Banks lending freely can fuel a rapid expansion of credit.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of lend, including the reflexive one: a plot lending itself to adaptation is a plot suited to it. As a gerund it keeps the verb's direct object (lending money to friends), while the noun needs of instead (the lending of money). Using it to mean borrowing, as in "she was lending my car" for borrowing it, is proscribed.

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