LIFT


Meaning of LIFT in English

I. ˈlift noun

( -s )

Etymology: Middle English luft, lift, from Old English lyft air, sky — more at loft

now chiefly Scotland : heavens, sky

the sweet calm moon in the midnight lift — John Wilson †1854

II. verb

( -ed/-ing/-s )

Etymology: Middle English liften, from Old Norse lypta; akin to Middle Low German lüchten to lift, Middle High German lüften; derivative from the root represented by Old English lyft air — more at loft

transitive verb

1.

a. : to raise from a lower to a higher position (as from the ground into the air) : move away from the pull of gravitation : elevate 1

the elevator lifts pedestrians ninety feet up the steep face of the cliff — American Guide Series: Oregon

did not lift his head from his book — D.M.Davin

lifted his pen from the paper

b. : to raise in rank, condition, or position

lifted him to national recognition

millions of families … have been lifted from poverty — F.L.Allen

c. : to raise or project above surrounding objects

a … church building lifts a tall clock tower — American Guide Series: Texas

the highest of these peaks … lifts its majestic cone far into the zone of permanent snow — P.E.James

d. : to raise in rate or amount

lift prices of commodities — L.C.Jauncey

2. now chiefly dialect : to attend to the collection of (as a payment due)

the laird lifted his rent — Charles Gibbon

3. archaic : to cut up (a swan)

4.

a. : to take up and remove (as a tent or camp)

b. : to put an end to (a blockade or siege) by withdrawing or causing the withdrawal of investing forces

c.

(1) : to revoke by an authoritative act : rescind

urged the … government to lift the embargo on the shipment of arms — Current Biography

(2) : to revoke or confiscate usually temporarily or for a specified time

lift a passport

d. : to take (as a bus ticket) especially in order to issue a replacement

5. : to take from its proper place:

a. : steal

had his pocketbook lifted

as

(1) : to carry or drive off (as cattle) by theft

I'll never lift no more cattle — R.M.Daw

(2) : plagiarize

b. : to take out of normal setting

lift a word out of context

the writer lifted an episode from history

6. chiefly Scotland : to take up and carry (a coffin) in a funeral procession

7. : to take up from the ground:

a. : to dig (root crops)

tubers should not be lifted when there are blight spots on the leaves — New Zealand Journal of Agric.

b. : to loosen and remove (as seedlings) from the seedbed or from a nursery

don't lift bulbs before leaves are brown — Sydney (Australia) Bulletin

8. : to remove by scalping

lift the hair

9. : to pay off (an obligation)

lift a mortgage

10. : to soften and swell (as a film of paint or size)

11. : face-lift

12. : to call in (hounds) for withdrawal from the chase or for redirection in hunting

13.

a. : to shift (artillery fire) from one area to another usually at greater range

b. : to withhold (fire) from an area

lift the fire prior to the advance of the infantry — Organized Reserve Corps Army Training Bulletin

14. : to move from one place to another (as by an airlift : transport

lifted the staff and students … to California and back — Collier's Year Book

15. : to remove (a fingerprint) from a surface usually by the use of plastics and powders

16.

a. : to remove (a form) from a printing press

b. : to remove (as matter in a form) for use in another job

intransitive verb

1.

a. : rise

a hundred-passenger airliner lifts from a New York airport — Seth Babits

a blue jay lifted suddenly from the rubbish heaps — Clemence Dane

b. : to appear elevated (as above surrounding objects)

white church spires lift above green valleys — Gladys Taber

green mountains which lift above the desert — Holiday

2.

a. : to rise and disperse — used chiefly of fog or clouds

b. : to cease temporarily — used of rain

the rain slackened, lifted, and finally left off — H.E.Bates

3. : warp — used of a floor

4. : to shake slightly — used of a sail

5. : pick 5

6. : to rise after pitching — used of a ball

on such a wicket … the ball is liable to lift sharply — Calling All Cricketers

7. : to remain intact when raised from a supporting surface — used of printing type in a locked-up form

Synonyms:

: lift , raise , rear , elevate , hoist , heave , and boost can mean, in common, to move from a lower to a higher place or position. lift , when it does not merely apply to any moving upward or causing to rise as by picking up, can suggest both a moving upward with a certain effort or a moving upward as in aspiring

lift a book to dust under it

lift a log onto a truck

the tall buildings lifted their spires above the surrounding plain

raise can be interchanged with lift but often suggests strongly a bringing of something to a vertical or a high position for which it is designed or fitted

raise a chair above his head

raise a flag

raise a building

raise a civilization to eminence

rear can sometimes especially in figurative use be interchanged with raise , but can also suggest a certain literal or figurative suddenness in the movement from a lower to higher position, as of something jutting

raise children to be responsible adults

rear children to a happy adulthood

the horse reared, its front feet flailing high in the air

the building reared thirty-odd stories high

elevate can, in a certain literary style, be interchanged with lift or raise , but generally suggests exaltation, uplifting, or enhancing

elevate a hand and an eyebrow

an instructor elevated to a professorship

elevate your standards of good conduct

elevate his thoughts

hoist usually implies the raising aloft of something of considerable weight especially by mechanical means

lay the heavy weights on the ground and subsequently have to hoist them up again — C.S.Forester

the boat rocked as the admiral hoisted his bulk inboard — A.B.Mayse

it takes five power winches to hoist this mammoth expanse of canvas on the five 62-foot center poles of Douglas fir — Monsanto Magazine

heave suggests strain and great effort

he looked like a massive, slow-footed bear as he heaved himself out of the car — Jean Stafford

nature's way of creating a mountain peak — first the heaving up of some blunt monstrous bulk of rumpled rock — C.E.Montague

his men heaved and heaved, but they couldn't get that anchor off the bottom — C.L.Carmer

boost suggests lifting or assisting to move upward by a push or other help from below

boosted him through the skylight on the new roof — American Guide Series: Louisiana

Synonym: see in addition steal .

- lift at

- lift one's voice

III. noun

( -s )

Usage: often attributive

Etymology: Middle English, from liften, v.

1. : the unit or weight that may be lifted at one time : quantity

a lift of sheet steel

610,000 pounds of daily cargo lift — New York Times

2.

a. : the action or an instance of lifting

the clear lift of a girl's voice — Cliff Farrell

a lift of her eyebrows

b. : the action or an instance of rising as if lifting something

the lift and boom of the waves — Sacheverell Sitwell

the lift and sweep of the hills to the sky — John Connell

c. : the action or habit of carrying (a part of the body) in an upright position : elevated carriage

the proud lift of her head

d. : the lifting up of a dancer usually by her partner

in a superb lift at the end — Dance Observer

— compare elevation 1d

3. : a device for lifting:

a. : a rope leading from a masthead to the extremity of a yard below and used chiefly to raise and support the yard — see ship illustration

b. : a device (as a handle or knob) used to raise a window

c. : a hinged handle used on chests

d. : the part used to lift the bar in some early door latches

4.

a. : an act of stealing : theft 1

b. obsolete : thief

5.

a. : the action or an instance of assistance (as in the attainment of a higher position)

b. : a ride along one's way in a vehicle going in the same direction

gave her lifts in his car between there and the village — Elizabeth Taylor

the rain-drenched couple raising their thumbs for a lift — E.D.Radin

6. dialect England : a gate (as in a wall or fence) that is opened by lifting

7. : one of the layers forming the heel of a shoe — see top lift

8. dialect England : a cut of meat usually from the thigh

9.

a. : one of a series of levels or stepped workings in a mine ; also : the vertical distance apart of such workings

b. : one of a series of sections or slices successively removed from a temporary pillar in a mine

10. : a rise in position or condition : a favorable advance

people … most deserving of such a lift in fortune — F.L.Allen

another lift in transport costs — Sidney (Australia) Bulletin

11. : a usually slight rise or elevation (as of the ground)

came down from the little lift in the ground where they were standing — W.C.Williams

12. : the distance or extent to which something (as the water in a canal lock) rises

the vertical lift of the lower lock is 25 feet — Civil Engineering

13. : an apparatus or machine used for hoisting: as

a. : a set of pumps used in a mine

b. : dumbwaiter 2

a lift for books in a library

c. chiefly Britain : elevator 1

heard him ring for the lift — J.D.Beresford

d. : an apparatus for raising an automobile from the ground to a higher level (as for repair or parking)

e. e : a conveyor for carrying people up or down a mountain slope

three new lifts highlight New Hampshire's extension of ski facilities — Judith D. Beal

— see alpine lift , chair lift , ski lift

f. : a mechanism for raising certain parts of farm implements above the ground

a tractor with a power lift

14.

a. : an elevating power or influence

the great lift of the thing … is what still compels in this great picture — F.J.Mather

b. : an elevation of the spirits produced by such an influence

needs the lift that the right clothes can give — Springfield (Massachusetts) City Library Bulletin

got a tremendous lift from the experience — W.P.Webb

a sudden lift of excitement — Oliver La Farge

15. : the portion of the escapement action in a timepiece in which the escape tooth imparts an impulse to the pallets

16.

a. : the distance between the terminal limits of yarn or thread wound on a bobbin

b. : the traverse of a piece of mechanism in winding a bobbin

17. : the component of the total aerodynamic force acting on an airplane or airfoil that is perpendicular to the relative wind and that for an airplane constitutes the upward force that opposes the pull of gravity

18. : the cope of a foundry mold

19. : a stack of brick in the kiln

20. : a single haul of a lift net ; also : the fish taken in such a haul

21. : the amount of concrete placed at a single time in the building of a structure (as a wall, pier, abutment)

22. : a pile of sheets (as of paper) constituting a number convenient for handling in a single printing operation

when a lift of printed sheets is removed from the press — R.W.Polk

23.

a. : an organized movement of men and equipment or of supplies by some form of transportation

move 1332 troops with their equipment in a single lift — E.A.Suttles

our ship carried a diverse and colorful fragment of … the second lift — Gordon Merrick

a food lift

b. : airlift I

says the Korea lift is the longest in the world — Frederick Graham

how the Berlin lift works — Charles Gardner

- on the lift

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.