lend S3 W3 /lend/ BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle lent /lent/)
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: lænan , from læn ; ⇨ ↑ loan 1 ]
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.
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THESAURUS
▪ 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?
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Did you lend that book to Mike?
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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.
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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.
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According to the computer, this book is still out on loan.