Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Language: Old English
Origin: lænan, from læn; LOAN1


lend S3 W3 past tense and past participle lent
a) [transitive] to let someone borrow money or something that belongs to you for a short time [↪ borrow]
lend something to somebody
I lent my CD player to Dave and I haven't got it back yet.
lend somebody something
The hospital agreed to lend us a wheelchair.
Can you lend me £10 until tomorrow?
b) [intransitive and transitive] if a bank or financial institution lends money, it lets someone have it on condition that they pay it back later, often gradually, with an additional amount as interest:
The government is trying to encourage the banks to lend more.
lend something to somebody
A lot of banks are unwilling to lend money to new businesses.
lend somebody something
The building society agreed to lend us £60,000.

lend (somebody) a hand

to help someone do something, especially something that needs physical effort:
Can you lend me a hand with this?
3 [transitive] formal to give a situation, event etc a particular quality
lend something to something
The presence of members of the royal family lent a certain dignity to the ceremony.

lend an ear

to listen to someone, especially in a sympathetic way:
He's always prepared to lend a sympathetic ear.

lend itself to something

to be suitable for being used in a particular way:
None of her books really lends itself to being made into a film.

lend (your) support (to something)

to support or help someone:
The government has now lent its support to the campaign.

lend weight/support to something

to make an opinion or belief seem more likely to be correct:
The police have new evidence which lends weight to their theory.

lend your name to something

to announce publicly that you support something that someone is trying to do:
The French prime minister has now lent his name to the protest.

Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?

Explore our topic dictionary