[f. as prec. + -ER.]
1. One who takes a thing on security or on credit.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 44. Borware [1499 borower], mutuator, sponsor.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. iii. 75. Neither a borrower, nor a lender be.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 15. Here are both to the Lender and Borrower great Advantages.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. II. iv. 360. Sober people are universally preferred as borrowers.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 314. The borrower should be under no obligation to repay either capital or interest.
2. transf. and fig. One who adopts a thing, uses it temporarily, or takes it at second-hand.
1605. Shaks., Macb., III. i. 27. I must become a borrower of the Night, For a darke houre, or twaine.
1750. Harris, Hermes, Wks. (1841), 236. We have been remarkable borrowers, as our multiform language may sufficiently shew.
1876. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma, 215. He … would not have become thus a borrower from Jesus.
