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lift

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lift¹

  • /lɪft/

Rhymes with -ɪft

Where it comes from

From Middle English liften, lyften, from Old Norse lypta (“to lift, air”, literally “to raise in the air”), from Proto-Germanic *luftijaną (“to raise in the air”), related to *luftuz (“roof, air”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *lewp- (“to peel, break off, damage”) or from a root meaning roof (see *luftuz). Cognate with Danish and Norwegian Bokmål løfte (“to lift”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish lyfta (“to lift”), German lüften (“to air, lift”), Old English lyft (“air”). See above. 1851 for the noun sense "a mechanical device for vertical transport".

(To steal): For this sense Cleasby suggests perhaps a relation to the root of Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌹𐍆𐍄𐌿𐍃 (hliftus) "thief", cognate with Latin cleptus and Greek κλέπτω (kléptō)). But perhaps simply from the idea of removing an item from a surface.

verb lifts · lifting · lifted · lift

  1. ambitransitive To raise or rise. The fog eventually lifted, leaving the streets clear.
  2. ambitransitive, transitive To cause to move upwards. Graham secured victory with five minutes left, coolly lifting the ball over Asmir Begovic.
  3. slang, transitive To steal. Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border side, And he has lifted the Colonel's mare that is the Colonel's pride.
  4. slang, transitive To source directly without acknowledgement; to plagiarise. Based on a similarity across a range of Anglo-Indian entries in these three dictionaries, it appears that (along with other lexis) Barrère and Leland (1898) copied this entry from Hotten (1864), who had in turn lifted it directly from Stocqueler (1848).
  5. slang, transitive To arrest (a person). Maybe the police lifted him and he's in Castlereagh [Interrogation Centre] because he'd been lifted three or four times previously and took to Castlereagh. They used to come in and raid the house and take him away.
  6. transitive To remove (a ban, restriction, etc.).
  7. transitive To alleviate, to lighten (pressure, tension, stress, etc.) The Gunners boss has been heavily criticised for his side's poor start to the Premier League season but this result helps lift the pressure.
  8. Scotland, especially, intransitive To disperse, to break up. About three o'clock in the mornin', the company began to lift, and the room to get thinner and thinner.
  9. informal, intransitive To lift weights; to weight-lift. She lifts twice a week at the gym.
  10. To try to raise something; to exert the strength for raising or bearing. strained by lifting at a weight too heavy
  11. To elevate or improve in rank, condition, etc.; often with up. The Roman virtues lift up mortal man.
  12. obsolete To bear; to support. Th' earth him underneath Did grone, as feeble so great load to lift.
  13. To collect, as moneys due; to raise.
  14. transitive Given morphisms f and g with the same target: To produce a morphism which the given morphism factors through (i.e. a morphism h such that f=g∘h; cf. lift n.etymology 1, noun 20)
  15. transitive To transform (a function) into a corresponding function in a different context. Finally, we can lift a partial function into a regular (total) function that returns an Option or a Some(value) when the partial function is defined for the input argument or None when it isn't.
  16. To buy a security or other asset previously offered for sale.
  17. transitive To take (hounds) off the existing scent and move them to another spot. I lifted the hounds (hoping to catch the leading ones there) to the far side of Hallaton Thorns.

noun lifts

  1. countable, uncountable An act of lifting or raising.
  2. countable, uncountable The act of transporting someone in a vehicle; a ride; a trip. He gave me a lift to the bus station.
  3. Australia, India, New Zealand, UK, countable, uncountable A mechanical device for vertically transporting goods or people between floors in a building. Take the lift to the fourth floor.
  4. countable, uncountable A mechanical device for raising vehicles for service, so that it is easier for a mechanic to get beneath them.
  5. countable, uncountable An upward force; especially, the force (generated by wings, rotary wings, or airfoils) that keeps aircraft aloft.
  6. countable, uncountable Any technique for lifting weights. This is actually an old-school circus lift—the sort of maneuver you imagine guys with twirly mustaches performing using cartoony barbells.
  7. countable, uncountable The difference in elevation between the upper pool and lower pool of a waterway, separated by lock.
  8. countable, historical, slang, uncountable A thief. The lift came into the shop dressed like a country gentleman, but was careful not to have a cloak about him, so that the tradesman could see he had no opportunity to conceal any goods about his person.
  9. countable, uncountable The lifting of a dance partner into the air.
  10. countable, uncountable Permanent construction with a built-in platform that is lifted vertically.
  11. countable, figuratively, uncountable An improvement in mood. The news rocked us, especially since we were anticipating a lift for our spirits under the grim circumstances.
  12. countable, uncountable The amount or weight to be lifted. What's the maximum lift of this crane?
  13. countable, uncountable The space or distance through which anything is lifted.
  14. countable, uncountable A rise; a degree of elevation. the lift of a lock in canals
  15. countable, uncountable A liftgate.
  16. countable, uncountable A rope leading from the masthead to the extremity of a yard below, and used for raising or supporting the end of the yard.
  17. countable, uncountable One of the steps of a cone pulley.
  18. countable, uncountable A layer of leather in the heel of a shoe.
  19. countable, uncountable That portion of the vibration of a balance during which the impulse is given. some measure the total lift and others only the lift on one side, a quantity which is not exactly half of the total lift
  20. countable, uncountable A morphism which some given morphism factors through; i.e. given a pair of morphisms f:X→Y and g:Z→Y, a morphism h such that f=g∘h. (In this case h is said to be a lift of f via Z or via g). For a covering space p#58;#92;tildeX#92;toX a path #92;gamma [i.e. a continuous map #91;0,1#93;#92;toX] in X has a unique lift #92;tilde#92;gamma starting at a given point of p#123;-1#125;(#92;gamma(0))
  21. countable, uncountable A shorter extract from a commercial/advertisement, able to be used on its own.

lift²

  • /lɪft/

Rhymes with -ɪft

Where it comes from

From Middle English lifte, luft, lefte (“air, sky, heaven”), from Old English lyft (“atmosphere, air”), from Proto-West Germanic *luftu, from Proto-Germanic *luftuz (“roof, sky, air”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewp- (“to peel, break off, damage”).

Cognate with Old High German luft (“air”) (German Luft), Dutch lucht (“air”), Old Norse lopt, loft (“upper room, sky, air”). Doublet of loft and luft.

noun lifts

  1. Scotland, UK, dialectal, uncountable, usually Air.
  2. Scotland, UK, dialectal, uncountable, usually The sky; the heavens; firmament; atmosphere. No, no, Leddy! the sun maun be up in the lift whan I venture to her den.

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