lift
Meanings
- To raise or rise.
- To cause to move upwards.
- To steal.
- To source directly without acknowledgement; to plagiarise.
- To arrest (a person).
- To remove (a ban, restriction, etc.).
- To alleviate, to lighten (pressure, tension, stress, etc.)
- To disperse, to break up.
- To lift weights; to weight-lift.
- To try to raise something; to exert the strength for raising or bearing.
- To elevate or improve in rank, condition, etc.; often with up.
- To bear; to support.
- An act of lifting or raising.
- The act of transporting someone in a vehicle; a ride; a trip.
- Mechanical device for vertically transporting goods or people between floors in a building.
- An upward force; especially, the force (generated by wings, rotary wings, or airfoils) that keeps aircraft aloft.
- The difference in elevation between the upper pool and lower pool of a waterway, separated by lock.
- A thief.
- The lifting of a dance partner into the air.
- Permanent construction with a built-in platform that is lifted vertically.
- An improvement in mood.
- The amount or weight to be lifted.
- The space or distance through which anything is lifted.
- A rise; a degree of elevation.
- Air.
- The sky; the heavens; firmament; atmosphere.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
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.