lifts

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of lift.

   The resort's chair lifts carried skiers to the highest runs.

   The powerlifter completed all three of her lifts cleanly.

   Note

   The plural covers whichever lift can be counted: rides offered, attempts at the barbell, machines carrying people between floors. In the building sense, lifts is the usual word in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and India. The upward force on a wing behaves as a mass noun, so it is lift, seldom lifts. Historical slang also called a thief a lift, so in older crime writing lifts may mean people rather than machines.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of lift.

   The crane lifts steel beams to the top of the tower.

   Fog lifts slowly as the sun rises over the valley.

   Note

   A verb form that works with or without an object: a crane lifts a beam, but fog simply lifts. With an object it also means removing a restriction, as when a government lifts a ban. In slang it can mean stealing, copying without credit, or arresting someone, so a writer who lifts paragraphs is being accused of plagiarism. The spelling is shared with the noun plural, and only the sentence tells them apart.

   The government lifts the curfew at dawn.

   He lifts whole paragraphs from other people's essays.

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