to lend itself to
14
5.2
- phrasal verb
:
prestarse a
- And I think it lends itself to a very, very good situation long term.
- readily lends itself to
- lends itself to manipulation
- lends itself to the development
Touring non-stop around the world does not lend itself to relationships at all.
- Touring non-stop around the world does not lend itself to relationships at all.
- You have more options, more choice, more funds, which lends itself to having more adventures, right?
- I'm criticizing a certain segment of our society that lends itself to this violent behavior.
- So, so there is a, a certain level of, of safety that lends itself to happiness flourishing.
- The profession lends itself to artistry, and I think that's why people gravitate that direction.
- And living in unusual places like Alabama and Minot, ND, lent itself to a lot of time for reading.
- So it kind of lends itself to this sort of attack years, years later down the road.
- It's an understandable topic, but it's sort of abstract and it doesn't quite lend itself to a game.
- And I think then it was like, OK, what is that show and what narrative lends itself to to something episodic?
- A, it gives me a sense that I am at a job and BI do not have a physique that lends itself to casual clothing.
- I'm not convinced that that it's sort of a problem that lends itself to to classic mathematical analysis.
- And I think it really has lent itself to the acting which has come a lot later.
- So there I was, fighting to solve some damn problem which was refusing to lend itself to solution.
- And I think that's one of the reasons why running sort of lends itself to some pretty good writing at times.
- But, but like I said, the AC propulsion technology did not lend itself to any, any kind of cost effective reliable car.
- And he says the word does not lend itself to being translated as Plato defines its essence.
Examples
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Our whole environment does not lend itself to knowing what that alternative way of operating is.
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The very nature of American public education lends itself to scrutiny and recommendations from such sources.
Academic text (1992) -
I think it would really lend itself to the big screen.
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Rather than scenarios, however, the subject matter may lend itself to other forms of examples.
Academic text (1992) -
So it lends itself to, like, a little bit more of a creative process.
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One course that lends itself to a workshop format is the child guidance course.
Academic text (2013) -
Just the effort at community building and whatnot lends itself to strong relationships between students.
Academic text (2015) -
The flexible physical space at Glen Allen lends itself to collaborative planning, teaching, and learning.
Academic text (2011) -
There's something about L.A. that lends itself to people with short attention spans.
Fiction book (2001) -
This design lends itself to various modifications, allowing us to adapt it for different projects.
Synonyms
832
2.0
Be relevant to a person, group, or situation
61
6.8
Make something suitable for a new use
To be suitable for a particular purpose
How Suitable
14
5.2
∞
1.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to be suitable for' can be partially inferred from 'lend' (to impart/give) combined with the reflexive 'itself' and 'to'—the phrase metaphorically means that something 'gives itself' to a purpose. However, the shift from a literal act of lending to a dispositional/suitability meaning is a conventionalized, metaphorical use of the construction that many B1 learners will not fully predict without prior exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrase lend itself to comes from the image of something you can lend for a job, like a tool that seems to offer itself to a task. So, it means 'to be suitable for' or 'work well for' a particular purpose.