lend

Meanings

Verb

• To allow to be used by someone temporarily, on condition that it or its equivalent will be returned.
• To make a loan.
• To be suitable or applicable, to fit.
• To afford; to grant or furnish in general.
• To borrow.

Noun

• Loan .
• The lumbar region; loin.
• The loins; flank; buttocks.

Related

Opposite words

• borrow

Origin

• From earlier len (with excrescent -d, as in sound, round, etc.), from Middle English lenen, lænen, from Old English lǣnan ("to lend; give, grant, lease"), from Proto-West Germanic *laihnijan, from Proto-Germanic *laihnijaną ("to loan"), from Proto-Germanic *laihną ("loan"), from Proto-Indo-European *leykʷ- ("to leave, leave over").
• Cognate with Scots len, lend, West Frisian liene ("to lend, borrow, loan"), Dutch lenen ("to lend, borrow, loan"), Swedish låna ("to lend, loan"), Icelandic lána ("to lend, loan"), Icelandic léna ("to grant"), Latin linquō ("quit, leave, forlet"), Ancient Greek λείπω ("leave, release"). See also loan.
• From Middle English lende (usually in plural as lendes, leendes, lyndes), from Old English lendenu, lendinu, from Proto-Germanic *landijō, *landį̄, from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- ("loin, kidney"). Cognate with Scots lend, leynd, Dutch lendenen ("loins, reins"), German Lenden ("loins"), Swedish länder ("loins"), Icelandic lendar ("loins"), Latin lumbus ("loin"), Russian ля́двея ("thigh, haunch").