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Glite Dictionary
📚 To use and return 💡 To copy 💻 To access temporarily
to borrow

to borrow

107 2.6
To take an idea or method from someone else and use it as your own
  • verb
  • /ˈbɔroʊ/
translation icon : apropiarse de
  • The concept of "hyperrealities" is borrowed from Travels in Hyperreality by Umberto Eco.
  • borrow ideas
  • borrow a phrase
  • borrow an expression

And I'm like, oh, she said, I borrowed a bit of that from Seoul.

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Examples

  • The article employs a theoretical framework borrowed from the study of jurisdictional conflict between professions.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Perched high above Hollywood Boulevard, my house borrows much of its dark atmosphere from the wreckage below.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Say, could I borrow this picture for a while?

    Fletch (1985)

  • When children write, they often borrow structures, patterns, and words from what they read.

    Academic text (2008)

  • So we literally have to borrow money even if we don't want to.

    Academic text (2015)

  • But it should inspire a healthy caution in literary critics who borrow methods from the social sciences.

    Academic text (1999)

  • We discussed how we could borrow certain "memoir shapes" and adapt them to suit our own purpose.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Understanding how composers borrow from each other helps us illuminate the continuum in musical art.

    Academic text (2015)

  • In this sense, the settlers were new Zionist pioneers who borrowed the prestige of early Zionist pioneers.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Many authors borrow ideas from classic literature to enhance their own stories.

Synonyms

to adopt
vsto borrow
440 3.2

To start using a new idea, method, or policy

specifies using another source in a way that treats it as one's own
to copy
vsto borrow
177 1.0

Do something the same way someone else does

focuses on taking and using material from another source as if it were one's own
to plagiarize
vsto borrow
  • US
23 6.8

To copy someone else's words or ideas and claim them as your own without saying where they came from

is the general act of taking and using another source as if it were one's own
to lift
vsto borrow
17 7.5

To use someone else's words or ideas without giving credit

is broader, applying to any idea or custom used as if it were one's own
to copycat
vsto borrow
  • Informal
1 3.7

To do the same things or say the same words as someone else

emphasizes taking and using another's material and presenting it as one's own
to co-opt
vsto borrow
7.2

Use someone else's idea as your own without permission

is similar but focuses on taking use as if it were one's own rather than permission
to dip one's pen in someone else's inkwell
vsto borrow
  • Archaic
9.9

To use someone else's ideas without giving them credit

is the more general concept of taking and using from another as if own

Compounds

borrow pit
  • Specialized
1 8.1

A hole that people dig to take soil or gravel for building work

How Original

to innovate
39 5.5
to adapt
178 3.2
to borrow
107 2.6
to copy
177 1.0
to plagiarize
  • US
23 6.8

Surface Forms

borrow infinitive
borrowed past
borrowed past participle
borrowing present participle
borrows third person singular

Etymology

Borrow keeps that same image for ideas and styles: to borrow an idea is to use someone else's idea for a while without claiming you own it.