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