ppl. a. [f. BORROW v.1 + -ED.]
1. Taken on loan. Borrowed days: see BORROWING vbl. sb.1 c.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxxi. 105. A borowed bene sette I noght be hym.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VI. iv. 289. So it is usuall amongst us … to ascribe unto March certaine borrowed dayes from Aprill.
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. Rhyme. But when the borrowed days were gane, The three silly hoggs cam hirplan’ hame.
2. transf. and fig. Taken or used at second-hand, not one’s own; assumed, counterfeit, ‘put on’; adopted or adapted for the nonce.
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.
1762. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), V. lxvii. 81. [Bedlow] had travelled over many parts of Europe under borrowed names.
1834. Mrs. 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?
