I. ˈrent noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English rente, from Old French, income from a property, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin rendita, from feminine of past participle of (assumed) rendere to yield — more at render
1. also rents plural , chiefly dialect : a piece of property that the owner allows another to use in exchange for a payment in services, kind, or money : a rented property ; especially : an apartment or house that rents
2. obsolete
a. : revenue , income
b. : tribute , tax , toll
3.
a. : a return made by a tenant or occupant of land or corporeal hereditaments to the owner for the possession and use thereof : a fixed periodical profit in money, provisions, chattels, or services issuing out of lands and tenements in payment for use ; especially : a pecuniary sum agreed upon between a tenant and his landlord for the use of land or its appendages
rent for a house
b. : the amount paid by a hirer or lessee of personal property (as farming stock, machinery) to the owner for the use thereof whether combined with rent for land or not
c. : a royalty under a mineral lease
d. : compensation for use and occupation of real estate not arising out of a lease in writing
4.
a. : the portion of the income of an economy (as of a nation) attributable to land as a factor of production in addition to capital and labor : the income of landowners as a class — compare profit , wage
b. : the income earned by a unit of production (as a market garden, a repairman) beyond the minimum required to make employment in such production worth while by meeting costs and at least equaling other possible employments in returns : the difference between the actual return from a commodity or service and the supply price : economic rent
c. : income or gain that is a differential return (as the excess of personal earnings of a producer of rare ability over those of an average producer) or as a surplus above costs
entrepreneur's rent denotes the profits of an ably managed … enterprise, conceived of as a differential above the return secured by a marginal undertaking which is barely able to meet its costs — A.A.Young
— see consumer's surplus , producer's surplus
•
- for rent
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English renten, from rente rent
transitive verb
1. obsolete : to give revenues or an endowment to : endow
2. : to take and hold under an agreement to pay rent : pay rent for
the tenant rents the house by the month under a one-year lease
3. : to grant the possession and enjoyment of for rent : hire out : let
the owner rents the house at a reasonable figure
intransitive verb
1. : to be for rent
the largest apartment rents for $800 a year
2.
a. : to obtain the possession and use of a place or article for rent
rents from the family in the other apartment
b. : to allow the possession and use of property for rent
rents to families with children
III.
past of rend
IV. ˈrent verb
Etymology: Middle English renten, alteration (influenced by rent ) (III) of renden to rend
dialect chiefly England : rend , tear
V. noun
( -s )
1. : an opening (as a tear in cloth, a cleft in the earth, a gorge, a crack in wood) made by or as if by rending
2. : a split in a party or organized group : schism
3. : an act or an instance of rending
Synonyms: see breach