borrow. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

borrow

SYLLABICATION:	bor·row
PRONUNCIATION:	br, bôr
VERB:	Inflected forms: bor·rowed, bor·row·ing, bor·rows
TRANSITIVE VERB:	1. To obtain or receive (something) on loan with the promise or understanding of returning it or its equivalent. 2. To adopt or use as one's own: I borrowed your good idea. 3. In subtraction, to take a unit from the next larger denomination in the minuend so as to make a number larger than the number to be subtracted.
INTRANSITIVE VERB:	1. To obtain or receive something. 2. Linguistics To adopt words from one language for use in another.
IDIOM:	borrow trouble To take an unnecessary action that will probably engender adverse effects.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English borwen, from Old English borgian. See bhergh-¹ in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS:	borrow·er —NOUN


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.