lift

• enPR: lĭft, IPA^(key): /lɪft/

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• Rhymes: -ɪft

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)).[1]

lift (third-person singular simple present lifts, present participle lifting, simple past lifted or (rare, regional, obsolete) lift, past participle lifted or (rare, regional, obsolete) lift or (obsolete) yleft)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To raise or rise.

   The fog eventually lifted, leaving the streets clear.

   You never lift a finger to help me!

   • c1490, Of Penance and Confession be master Jhon Yrlandː

     Liftand (lifting) thy hands and thy eyen to Heaven.

   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, “chapter I”, in The House Behind the Cedars:

     Their walk had continued not more than ten minutes when they crossed a creek by a wooden bridge and came to a row of mean houses standing flush with the street. At the door of one, an old black woman had stooped to lift a large basket, piled high with laundered clothes.

   • 2015 February 7, Val Bourne, “The quiet man of the world of snowdrops”, in The Daily Telegraph (London), page G8:

     Once it [a snowdrop variety] became established, some bulbs were lifted and passed on to be chipped (i.e. cut into small pieces and grown on).

2. (transitive, slang) To steal.
   • 1919, Rudyard Kipling, The Ballad of East and West:

     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.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     “Wilbert Cream is a ... what's the word?” I referred to the letter. “A kleptomaniac […] Does any thought occur to you?” “It most certainly does. I am thinking of your uncle's collection of old silver.” “Me, too.” “It presents a grave temptation to the unhappy young man.” “I don't know that I'd call him unhappy. He probably thoroughly enjoys lifting the stuff.”

3. (transitive, slang) To source directly without acknowledgement; to plagiarise.
   • 2018, James Lambert, “Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles”, in World Englishes, volume 37, page 258:

     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).

4. (transitive, slang) To arrest (a person).
   • 2000, Marie Smyth; Marie-Therese Fay, Personal Accounts From Northern Ireland's Troubles:

     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.

5. (transitive) To remove (a ban, restriction, etc.).
6. (transitive) To alleviate, to lighten (pressure, tension, stress, etc.)
   • 2011 September 24, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC Sport‎:

     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.

7. (transitive) to cause to move upwards.
   • 2011 October 2, Aled Williams, “Swansea 2 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport Wales‎:

     Graham secured victory with five minutes left, coolly lifting the ball over Asmir Begovic.

8. (informal, intransitive) To lift weights; to weight-lift.

   She lifts twice a week at the gym.

9. To try to raise something; to exert the strength for raising or bearing.
   • a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC:

     strained by lifting at a weight too heavy

10. To elevate or improve in rank, condition, etc.; often with up.
    • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:

      The Roman virtues lift up mortal man.

    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 3:6:

      being lifted up with pride

11. (obsolete) To bear; to support.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

      Th' earth him underneath
      Did grone, as feeble so great load to lift.

12. To collect, as moneys due; to raise.
13. (programming) To transform (a function) into a corresponding function in a different context.
    • 2021, Dean Wampler, chapter 2, in Programming Scala, 3rd edition, O'Reilly, →ISBN:

      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.

14. (finance) To buy a security or other asset previously offered for sale.
15. (hunting, transitive) To take (hounds) off the existing scent and move them to another spot.
    • 1885, Lina Chaworth Musters, Book of Hunting Songs and Sport, page 144:

      I lifted the hounds (hoping to catch the leading ones there) to the far side of Hallaton Thorns.

Lift also has an obsolete form liftand for the present participle. The strong forms were common until the 17th century in writing and still survive in speech in a few rural dialects.

• airlift

lift (countable and uncountable, plural lifts)

1. An act of lifting or raising.
2. The act of transporting someone in a vehicle; a ride; a trip.

   Synonym: ride

   • 1913, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Poison Belt‎:

     Accordingly, in spite of many grumbles and remonstrances from Summerlee, I ordered an additional tube, which was placed with the other in his motor-car, for he had offered me a lift to Victoria.

   He gave me a lift to the bus station.

3. (UK, Australia, New Zealand) Mechanical device for vertically transporting goods or people between floors in a building.

   Synonym: (US, Canada, Australia) elevator

   Take the lift to the fourth floor.

4. An upward force, such as the force that keeps aircraft aloft.

   Synonym: uplift

5. (measurement) The difference in elevation between the upper pool and lower pool of a waterway, separated by lock.
6. (historical slang) A thief.
   • 1977, Gãmini Salgãdo, The Elizabethan Underworld, Folio Society, published 2006, page 32:

     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.

7. (dance) The lifting of a dance partner into the air.
8. Permanent construction with a built-in platform that is lifted vertically.
9. (figurative) An improvement in mood.
   • 2010, Anne Baker, With a Little Luck:

     Just to think he had both a mistress and a wife gave him a lift. He needed a lift, for although he'd had promotion, his wasn't an exciting job.

   • 2012 November 17, “Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport‎:

     The dismissal of a player who left Arsenal for Manchester City before joining Tottenham gave the home players and fans a noticeable lift.

10. The amount or weight to be lifted.

    What's the maximum lift of this crane?

11. The space or distance through which anything is lifted.
12. A rise; a degree of elevation.

    the lift of a lock in canals

13. A liftgate.
14. (nautical) A rope leading from the masthead to the extremity of a yard below, and used for raising or supporting the end of the yard.
15. (engineering) One of the steps of a cone pulley.
16. (shoemaking) A layer of leather in the heel of a shoe.
17. (horology) That portion of the vibration of a balance during which the impulse is given.
    • 1887, Claudius Saunier, A Treatise on Modern Horology in Theory and Practice:

      some measure the total lift and others only the lift on one side , a quantity which is not exactly half of the total lift

• → Swahili: lifti

• escalator

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

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”). More at loft.

lift (usually uncountable, plural lifts)

1. (UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) Air.
2. (UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland) The sky; the heavens; firmament; atmosphere.
   • 1836, Joanna Baillie, Witchcraft, Act 1, p.13

     No, no, Leddy! the sun maun be up in the lift whan I venture to her den.

• (gas or vapour breathed): air
• (firmament, ethereal region surrounding the earth): atmosphere
• (the heavens, sky): welkin

• lift at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “lift”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “lift”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• ILTF, flit

From English lift.

lift n (singular definite liftet, plural indefinite lift)

1. The non-commercial act of transporting someone in a vehicle: ride
2. boost

lift c (singular definite liften, plural indefinite lifte or lifter)

1. carrycot
2. elevator
3. lift

• IPA^(key): /lɪft/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lift
• Rhymes: -ɪft

Borrowed from English lift.

lift m (plural liften, diminutive liftje n)

1. A lift, an elevator.
2. A free ride, a lift.

• goederenlift
• rolstoellift
• skilift
• stoeltjeslift
• traplift

• liften

• → Papiamentu: left

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

lift

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of liften
2. imperative of liften

From English lift.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlift/

lift (genitive lifti, partitive lifti)

1. lift, elevator

English lift.

lift m (plural lifts)

1. (obsolete) lift attendant (UK), elevator attendant (US)
   • 1919, Marcel Proust, À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs:

     Sans la timidité ni la tristesse du soir de mon arrivée, je sonnai le lift qui ne restait plus silencieux pendant que je m'élevais à côté de lui dans l'ascenseur […] .

     Without the timidity or sadness of the evening I arrived, I rang for the lift attendant, who no longer remained silent as I travelled up beside him in the elevator.

2. (sports) topspin

Borrowed from English lift.

• IPA^(key): [ˈlift]
• Hyphenation: lift
• Rhymes: -ift

lift (plural liftek)

1. lift, elevator

   Synonym: (formal) felvonó

   Hyponym: (a slow, continuously moving lift or elevator) páternoszter

• lift in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

From English lift, 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).

• IPA^(key): [ˈlɪf]
• Rhymes: -lɪf, -ɪf, -f
• Hyphenation: lift

lift (plural lift-lift, first-person possessive liftku, second-person possessive liftmu, third-person possessive liftnya)

1. lift, mechanical device for vertically transporting goods or people between floors in a building; an elevator.

• lif (Standard Malay)

• “lift” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

Pseudo-anglicism. In sense 1, a clipping of English liftboy. In sense 2, a transferred sense of English lift.

lift m (invariable)

1. lift / elevator operator
2. (tennis) topspin

• liftare

• luft, left, leoft

From Old English lyft.

• IPA^(key): /lift/

lift

1. left

• English: left
• Yola: left

• “lift, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From English lift, French lift.

• IPA^(key): /lift/

lift n (plural lifturi)

1. elevator, lift

   Synonym: ascensor

2. (tennis, table tennis, volleyball) A stroke that gives the ball an upward trajection.

• aerlift
• lift spațial

• luft

From Middle English lift, luft, from Old English lyft.

lift (plural lifts)

1. sky, firmament
2. (Middle Scots) air, atmosphere

• “lift” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

From English lift.

• IPA^(key): /lîft/

lȉft m (Cyrillic spelling ли̏фт)

1. lift, elevator

• dȉzalo

Derived from English lift.

• IPA^(key): [lift]

lift m inan (genitive singular liftu, nominative plural lifty, genitive plural liftov, declension pattern of dub)

1. (colloquial) an elevator, lift

   Synonym: výťah

• liftový

• lift in Slovak dictionaries at slovnik.juls.savba.sk

From Russian лифт (lift), from English lift.

lift (plural liftlar)

1. elevator, lift

• liftchi
• liftyor

lift (nominative plural lifts)

1. elevator
2. altitude adjustor