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Glite Dictionary
lend-lease

lend-lease

8.1
Sending weapons and supplies from one country to an ally during war without payment right away
  • noun
  • /ˈlɛndˌliːs/
  • Archaic
translation icon : préstamo y arrendamiento
  • As part of the lend-lease program, many countries received essential goods to support their war efforts.
  • lend-lease agreement
  • Lend-Lease aid

Examples

  • Imagine Donald Trump in the Second World War, would he be practicing Lend Lease with Joe Stalin and Winston Churchill?

  • There is nothing other than the Lend Lease Act, which is putting root Ukraine in massive debt right now to the West.

  • Two years after we had sworn that solemn oath, war broke out in Europe, and the president promised aid under a lend-lease arrangement to England.

    Academic text (2011)

  • The case concerned a group of about 60 Canadian civilian employees working for the U.S. Navy at its base in Argentia, Newfoundland, established during World War II under a lend-lease agreement.

    Academic text (1994)

  • President Roosevelt's decision in February 1943 to declare Saudi Arabia "vital to the defense of the United States" and therefore eligible for Lend-Lease assistance certainly reflected in part a desire to assure U.S. and European access to petroleum resources, as did U.S. actions in Iran in 1953.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The American President solved the problem in 1943 by stating to the administrator of the Lend-Lease program that: "In order to enable you to arrange Lend-Lease aid to the government of Saudi Arabia, I hereby find that the defense of Saudi Arabia is vital to the defense of the United States."

    Academic text (2001)

  • The lend-lease agreement allowed the United States to provide military supplies to its allies during World War II.

  • Britain benefited significantly from the lend-lease arrangement, receiving aircraft and ships to aid in the fight against Nazi Germany.

Synonyms

lease-lend
vslend-lease
  • Formal
9.9

Government sends military supplies to an allied country during a war to help it

is a general wartime support provided without immediate payment

Surface Forms

lend-lease singular
lend-leases plural

Morphology

lend-lease = lend + lease (semi-transparent) = lend + lease

The compound is transparently formed from 'lend' + 'lease', but it names a specific wartime program/policy so the full institutional meaning is specialized and not fully derivable by all learners.

Etymology

The word lend-lease comes from joining the common words lend 'to give temporarily' and lease 'to rent', and it was the name of a World War II program in which the United States gave or rented weapons and supplies to its allies without paying right away. So, lend-lease means helping an ally by giving or renting goods during war, often without payment right away.