borrowed

5 definitions • 8 examples

past simple and past participle of

to get or receive something from someone with the intention of giving it back after a period of time:

borrow something from someone I had to borrow a pen from the invigilator to do the exam.

UK non-standard Can I borrow £100 off you until next week?

She used to borrow money and not bother to pay it back.

borrow something from something He borrowed a novel from the library.

to take money from a bank or other financial organization and pay it back over a period of time:

borrow heavily Like so many companies at that time, we had to borrow heavily to survive.

borrow something from something We could always borrow some money from the bank.

to take and use a word or idea from another language or piece of work:

borrow something from something English has borrowed many words from French.

borrow heavily from She has created new string sounds that borrow heavily from folk and jazz.

to put a number into a different column when doing subtraction