lend
[verb]
Synonyms:
- loan, advance
- add, bestow, confer, give, grant, impart, provide, supply
- lend itself to: suit, be appropriate, be serviceable

---

Related Words: lease-lend, lend-lease, allow, furnish, give, accommodate, oblige

---

English Thesaurus: lend, let somebody use something/let somebody have something, be on loa

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

lend S3 W3 /lend/ verb (past tense and past participle lent /lent/)
[Language: Old English; Origin: lænan, from læn; ⇒ loan¹]

1.
a) [transitive] to let someone borrow money or something that belongs to you for a short time ⇒ borrow
lend something to somebody
I lent my CD player to Dave and I haven’t got it back yet.
lend somebody something
The hospital agreed to lend us a wheelchair.
Can you lend me £10 until tomorrow?
b) [intransitive and transitive] if a bank or financial institution lends money, it lets someone have it on condition that they pay it back later, often gradually, with an additional amount as interest:
The government is trying to encourage the banks to lend more.
lend something to somebody
A lot of banks are unwilling to lend money to new businesses.
lend somebody something
The building society agreed to lend us £60,000.

2. lend (somebody) a hand to help someone do something, especially something that needs physical effort:
Can you lend me a hand with this?

3. [transitive] formal to give a situation, event etc a particular quality
lend something to something
The presence of members of the royal family lent a certain dignity to the ceremony.

4. lend an ear to listen to someone, especially in a sympathetic way:
He’s always prepared to lend a sympathetic ear.

5. lend itself to something to be suitable for being used in a particular way:
None of her books really lends itself to being made into a film.

6. lend (your) support (to something) to support or help someone:
The government has now lent its support to the campaign.

7. lend weight/support to something to make an opinion or belief seem more likely to be correct:
The police have new evidence which lends weight to their theory.

8. lend your name to something to announce publicly that you support something that someone is trying to do:
The French prime minister has now lent his name to the protest.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

lend
verb
ADV. kindly She very kindly lent me her bicycle.
VERB + LEND be prepared to, be willing to | refuse to, be unwilling to The bank was unwilling to lend him the money.
persuade sb to
PREP. to I've lent my car to George for the weekend.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

lend
verb
1.
BAD: Could I lend your pen just for a minute?
GOOD: Could I borrow your pen just for a minute?

Usage Note:
See note at BORROW (borrow)

---

2.
BAD: To lend a car, you have to have a driving licence.
GOOD: To hire a car, you have to have a driving licence.
BAD: We usually lend a villa so that we can cook for ourselves.
GOOD: We usually rent a villa so that we can cook for ourselves.

Usage Note:
See note at HIRE (hire)

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Common Errors ▲

lend (also loan especially American English) to let someone borrow money or something that belongs to you for a short time:
Can you lend me $20?
Did you lend that book to Mike?
The documents were loaned by the local library.
let somebody use something/let somebody have something to let someone use something that belongs to you for a short time, especially a room, a house, or something big and expensive:
Some friends are letting us use their house while they are on vacation.
Dad said he’d let me have his car for the weekend.
be on loan if something is on loan, it has been lent to a person or organization in an official way – often used about a library book or a work of art:
The museum has an exhibition of paintings on loan from the Louvre.
According to the computer, this book is still out on loan.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲