• enPR: lĕnd, IPA: /lɛnd/
• (pin-pen) IPA: /lɪnd/

From earlier len (with excrescent -d, as in sound, round, etc.

Cognate with Scots len, lend ("to lend"), Western Frisian liene, Dutch lenen, Danish låne, Swedish låna, Icelandic lána, Icelandic léna, Latin linquō, Ancient Greek λείπω. See also loan.

lend (lends, present participle lending; simple past and past participle lent)

1. (transitive) To allow to be used by someone temporarily, on condition that it or its equivalent will be returned.

   I will only lend you my car if you fill up the tank.

   I lent her 10 euros to pay for the train tickets, and she paid me back the next day.

2. (intransitive) To make a loan.
3. (reflexive) To be suitable or applicable, to fit.

   Poems do not lend themselves to translation easily.

   The long history of the past does not lend itself to a simple black and white interpretation.

4. To afford; to grant or furnish in general.

   Can you lend me some assistance?

   The famous director lent his name to the new film.

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC ↗, Act I, scene ii, page 1 ↗:

     Cato, lend me for a while thy patience.

   • 1886, John Addington Symonds, Sir Philip Sidney:

     Mountain lines and distant horizons lend space and largeness to his compositions.

5. (proscribed) To borrow.

• borrow

• French: prêter
• German: leihen, verleihen, borgen
• Italian: prestare
• Portuguese: emprestar
• Russian: ода́лживать
• Spanish: prestar, emprestar (Latin America)

• French: prêter

lend

1. (chiefly, dialectal, with "the") Loan permission to borrow (something).
   • c. 1800s, Arthur McBride, version from 2012, Dick Sheridan, Irish Songs for Ukulele (Songbook), Hal Leonard Corporation (ISBN 9781476868356):

     “But,” says Arthur, “I wouldn't be proud of your clothes, / For you've only the lend of them, as I suppose.”

   • 1866, Walkden, Diary, 6:

     Yesterday asked Mr. Aray the lend of 8s. 6d. for a month.

From Middle English lende (usually in plural as lendes, leendes, lyndes), from Old English lendenu, lendinu ("loins"), from Proto-Germanic *landijō, *landį̄ ("loin"), from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ-.

lend (plural lends)

1. (anatomy, UK dialectal) The lumbar region; loin.
2. (UK dialectal, of a person or animal) The loins; flank; buttocks.