borrowed, ppl. a.
(ˈbɒrəʊd)
[f. borrow v.1 -ed.]
1. Taken on loan. borrowed days: in Cheshire, the first eleven days of May, so called because in Old Style they belonged to April; see borrowing vbl. n.1 c. borrowed time: an unexpected extension of time, esp. of a person's life.
| c 1440 York Myst. xxxi. 105 A borowed bene sette I noght be hym. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep., So it is usual among us..to ascribe unto March certain borrowed days from April. 1688 Answ. Talon's Plea 27 The Palace..where he resides, being but a borrowed house. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 245 He rode away..on a borrowed horse, which he never returned. Scotch Pop. Rime, But when the borrowed days were gane, The three silly hoggs cam hirplan' hame. 1898 E.D.D. s.v., A man who lives on borrowed time lives on trespass-ground. Ay, all mine is borrowed time, noo. 1939 R. Chandler Big Sleep xviii. 148 Brody was living on borrowed time. 1961 R. Jeffries Evidence of Accused iii. 26 After the age of forty-five one's living on borrowed time. |
2. transf. and fig. a. Taken or used at second-hand, not one's own; assumed, counterfeit, ‘put on’; adopted or adapted for the nonce. borrowed light, (a) reflected light (see quot. 1834); also fig.; (b) see quot. 1963.
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. i. 1 A borowed maner of speech. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iii. xii. 14 Her bright browes were deckt with borrowed haire. 1621–31 Laud 7 Serm. (1847) 8 Most of the later divines are for the borrowed sense. 1657 Bp. H. King Poems 139 Even such is man, whose borrow'd light Is streight call'd in, and paid to night. 1762 Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) V. lxvii. 81 [Bedlow] had travelled over many parts of Europe under borrowed names. 1834 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. xxxvi. (1849) 408 If comets shine by borrowed light. 1880 F. Hall in 19th Cent. Sept. 426 Has borrowed English been a peculiarity of the last two or three centuries? 1934 H. G. Wells Exper. Autobiogr. I. ii. 39 Behind the shop was an extremely small room, the ‘parlour’, with a fireplace, a borrowed light and glass-door upon the shop and a larger window upon the yard behind. 1963 Gloss. Build. Terms (B.S.I.) 13 Borrowed light, a glazed..opening in an internal wall or partition designed to admit light. |
b. In organ-building, said of a pipe, a stop, or a set of them which is sounded at the expense of another or is incomplete of itself and is eked out by the use of pipes of another stop or set.
| 1840 in Grove Dict. Mus. (1880) II. 600/2 ‘Borrowed’ Solo Organ. 1880 Ibid. 595/1 Choir Organ. 2 real stops; 4 borrowed... Borrowed by communication from the Great Organ. Ibid. 595/2 The extra department consisted of a complete borrowed organ of 13 stops derived from the Great Organ. Ibid., Second Great Organ. 13 borrowed stops. |