Wiktionary

lift

See also: Lift

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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]

Verb

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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)

  2. (ambitransitive) To raise or rise.
    The fog eventually lifted, leaving the streets clear.
    You never lift a finger to help me!
    • c. 1490, Of Penance and Confession be master Jhon Yrlandː
      Liftand (lifting) thy hands and thy eyen to Heaven.
    • 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1984 October 12, Janet Maslin, “Blood Simple, A black-comic romp”, in The New York Times, retrieved 9 July 2012:
      A long, late-night tracking shot from one end of the Neon Boot bar to another actually tracks along the surface of the bar itself—and when there is a drunk passed out on the bar, the camera simply lifts up and flies over him, then continues on its route.
    • 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).
  4. (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.”
  6. (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).
  8. (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.
  10. (transitive) To remove (a ban, restriction, etc.).
  12. (transitive) To alleviate, to lighten (pressure, tension, stress, etc.)
    • 2011 September 24, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC Sport‎[1]:
      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.
  13. (transitive) to cause to move upwards.
    • 2011 October 2, Aled Williams, “Swansea 2 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport Wales‎[2]:
      Graham secured victory with five minutes left, coolly lifting the ball over Asmir Begovic.
  15. (informal, intransitive) To lift weights; to weight-lift.
    She lifts twice a week at the gym.
  16. To try to raise something; to exert the strength for raising or bearing.
  17. To elevate or improve in rank, condition, etc.; often with up.
  18. (obsolete) To bear; to support.
  19. To collect, as moneys due; to raise.
  20. (category theory, transitive) Given morphisms   and   with the same target: To produce a morphism which the given morphism factors through (i.e. a morphism   such that  ; cf. lift n.18)
    1. (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.
  21. (finance) To buy a security or other asset previously offered for sale.
  22. (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.
Usage notes
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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.

Hyponyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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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
    He gave me a lift to the bus station.
    • 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
      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.
  3. (UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, puristic elsewhere) 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.
  5. An upward force; especially, the force (generated by wings, rotary wings, or airfoils) that keeps aircraft aloft.
    Coordinate term: liftup
  6. (measurement) The difference in elevation between the upper pool and lower pool of a waterway, separated by lock.
  7. (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.
  8. (dance) The lifting of a dance partner into the air.
  9. Permanent construction with a built-in platform that is lifted vertically.
  10. (figurative) An improvement in mood.
    • 1981 February 7, “Robert Bobby Bob (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 28, page 14:
      The news rocked us, especially since we were anticipating a lift for our spirits under the grim circumstances.
    • 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[3]:
      The dismissal of a player who left Arsenal for Manchester City before joining Tottenham gave the home players and fans a noticeable lift.
  11. The amount or weight to be lifted.
    What's the maximum lift of this crane?
  12. The space or distance through which anything is lifted.[2]
  13. A rise; a degree of elevation.[2]
    the lift of a lock in canals
  14. A liftgate.
  15. (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.[2]
  16. (engineering) One of the steps of a cone pulley.[2]
  17. (shoemaking) A layer of leather in the heel of a shoe.[2]
  18. (horology) That portion of the vibration of a balance during which the impulse is given.[2]
    • 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
  20. (category theory) A morphism which some given morphism factors through; i.e. given a pair of morphisms   and  , a morphism   such that  . (In this case   is said to be a lift of   via   or via  ).
    • 2001, Allen Hatcher, Algebraic Topology, page 69:
      For a covering space   a path   [i.e. a continuous map  ] in   has a unique lift   starting at a given point of  
  21. (broadcasting) A shorter extract from a commercial/advertisement, able to be used on its own.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • → Cantonese: 𨋢 / 䢂 (lip1)
  • → Dutch: lift
    • → Papiamentu: left
  • → Malay: lif
  • → Russian: лифт (lift)
  • → Swahili: lifti
  • → Swedish: lift
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
See also
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References

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Etymology 2

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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

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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, page 13:
      No, no, Leddy! the sun maun be up in the lift whan I venture to her den.
Synonyms
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  • (gas or vapour breathed): air
  • (firmament, ethereal region surrounding the earth): atmosphere
  • (the heavens, sky): welkin

References

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  1. ^ Hlenni in Cleasby/Vigfusson An Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874) p. 270
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 “lift”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

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Azerbaijani

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Azerbaijani Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia az

Noun

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lift (definite accusative lifti, plural liftlər)

  1. lift

Declension

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Declension of lift
singular plural
nominative liftliftlər
definite accusative liftiliftləri
dative liftəliftlərə
locative liftdəliftlərdə
ablative liftdənliftlərdən
definite genitive liftinliftlərin
Possessive forms of lift
nominative
singular plural
mənim (“my”) liftim liftlərim
sənin (“your”) liftin liftlərin
onun (“his/her/its”) lifti liftləri
bizim (“our”) liftimiz liftlərimiz
sizin (“your”) liftiniz liftləriniz
onların (“their”) lifti or liftləri liftləri
accusative
singular plural
mənim (“my”) liftimi liftlərimi
sənin (“your”) liftini liftlərini
onun (“his/her/its”) liftini liftlərini
bizim (“our”) liftimizi liftlərimizi
sizin (“your”) liftinizi liftlərinizi
onların (“their”) liftini or liftlərini liftlərini
dative
singular plural
mənim (“my”) liftimə liftlərimə
sənin (“your”) liftinə liftlərinə
onun (“his/her/its”) liftinə liftlərinə
bizim (“our”) liftimizə liftlərimizə
sizin (“your”) liftinizə liftlərinizə
onların (“their”) liftinə or liftlərinə liftlərinə
locative
singular plural
mənim (“my”) liftimdə liftlərimdə
sənin (“your”) liftində liftlərində
onun (“his/her/its”) liftində liftlərində
bizim (“our”) liftimizdə liftlərimizdə
sizin (“your”) liftinizdə liftlərinizdə
onların (“their”) liftində or liftlərində liftlərində
ablative
singular plural
mənim (“my”) liftimdən liftlərimdən
sənin (“your”) liftindən liftlərindən
onun (“his/her/its”) liftindən liftlərindən
bizim (“our”) liftimizdən liftlərimizdən
sizin (“your”) liftinizdən liftlərinizdən
onların (“their”) liftindən or liftlərindən liftlərindən
genitive
singular plural
mənim (“my”) liftimin liftlərimin
sənin (“your”) liftinin liftlərinin
onun (“his/her/its”) liftinin liftlərinin
bizim (“our”) liftimizin liftlərimizin
sizin (“your”) liftinizin liftlərinizin
onların (“their”) liftinin or liftlərinin liftlərinin

Further reading

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  • “lift” in Obastan.com.

Chinese

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For pronunciation and definitions of lift – see 𨋢 (“elevator; lift”).
(This term is a variant form of 𨋢).

Danish

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Etymology

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From English lift.

Noun

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lift n (singular definite liftet, plural indefinite lift)

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

Inflection

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Declension of lift
neuter
gender 		singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative lift liftet lift liftene
genitive lifts liftets lifts liftenes

Noun

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

  1. carrycot
  2. elevator
  3. lift

Inflection

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Declension of lift
common
gender 		singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative lift liften lifte
lifter 		liftene
lifterne
genitive lifts liftens liftes
lifters 		liftenes
lifternes

Dutch

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Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from British English lift.

Noun

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lift m (plural liften, diminutive liftje n)

  1. a lift, an elevator
  2. a free ride, a lift
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • → Papiamentu: left

Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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lift

  1. inflection of liften:
    1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
    2. imperative

Estonian

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Estonian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia et

Etymology

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From British English lift.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lift (genitive lifti, partitive lifti)

  1. lift, elevator

Declension

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Declension of lift (ÕS type 22u/leib, length gradation)
singular plural
nominative lift liftid
accusative nom.
gen. lifti
genitive liftide
partitive lifti liftu
liftisid
illative lifti
liftisse 		liftidesse
liftusse
inessive liftis liftides
liftus
elative liftist liftidest
liftust
allative liftile liftidele
liftule
adessive liftil liftidel
liftul
ablative liftilt liftidelt
liftult
translative liftiks liftideks
liftuks
terminative liftini liftideni
essive liftina liftidena
abessive liftita liftideta
comitative liftiga liftidega

French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English lift.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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

References

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Hungarian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from British English lift.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lift (plural liftek)

  1. lift, elevator
    Synonym: (formal) felvonó
    Hyponym: (a slow, continuously moving lift or elevator) páternoszter

Declension

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Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative lift liftek
accusative liftet lifteket
dative liftnek lifteknek
instrumental lifttel liftekkel
causal-final liftért liftekért
translative liftté liftekké
terminative liftig liftekig
essive-formal liftként liftekként
essive-modal — —
inessive liftben liftekben
superessive liften lifteken
adessive liftnél lifteknél
illative liftbe liftekbe
sublative liftre liftekre
allative lifthez liftekhez
elative liftből liftekből
delative liftről liftekről
ablative lifttől liftektől
non-attributive
possessive – singular 		lifté lifteké
non-attributive
possessive – plural 		liftéi liftekéi
Possessive forms of lift
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. liftem liftjeim
2nd person sing. lifted liftjeid
3rd person sing. liftje liftjei
1st person plural liftünk liftjeink
2nd person plural liftetek liftjeitek
3rd person plural liftjük liftjeik

Derived terms

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Compound words
Expressions

Further reading

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

Indonesian

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Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia id

Etymology

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From British 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).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lift (plural lift-lift)

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

Alternative forms

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Compounds

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Further reading

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Italian

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Etymology

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

Noun

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lift m (invariable)

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

Derived terms

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old English lyft.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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lift

  1. left

Descendants

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References

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Middle Scots

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Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

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Noun

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lift

  1. sky, firmament
  2. air, atmosphere

Etymology 2

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Alternative forms

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Noun

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lift

  1. act of lifting

References

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from British English lift, French lift.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lift n (plural lifturi)

  1. elevator, lift
    Synonym: ascensor
  2. (tennis, table tennis, volleyball) A stroke that gives the ball an upward trajection.

Derived terms

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Scots

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Middle Scots lift, from Middle English lift / luft, from Old English lyft.

Noun

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lift (plural lifts)

  1. sky, firmament

References

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Serbo-Croatian

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Etymology

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From British English lift.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lȉft m (Cyrillic spelling ли̏фт)

  1. lift, elevator
    Synonym: dȉzalo

Declension

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Declension of lift
singular plural
nominative lȉft lìftovi
genitive lifta lìftōvā
dative liftu liftovima
accusative lift liftove
vocative lifte liftovi
locative liftu liftovima
instrumental liftom liftovima

Slovak

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Etymology

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Derived from British English lift.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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

  1. (colloquial) an elevator, lift
    Synonym: výťah

Declension

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Declension of lift
singular plural
nominative lift lifty
genitive liftu liftov
dative liftu liftom
accusative lift lifty
locative lifte liftoch
instrumental liftom liftami, liftmi

Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • “lift”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

Swedish

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en lift (knapplift (button lift))

Etymology

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Borrowed from English lift.

Noun

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lift c

  1. a ski lift
    Synonym: skidlift
    ta liften uppför fjället
    take the ski lift up the mountain
    lära sig att åka lift
    learn to ride a ski lift
  2. an aerial work platform
    Synonym: skylift
  3. a ride, a lift (for free, for example when hitchhiking)
    få lift någonstans
    get/hitch a ride somewhere

Usage notes

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Compare skjuts.

Declension

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Declension of lift
nominative genitive
singular indefinite lift lifts
definite liften liftens
plural indefinite liftar liftars
definite liftarna liftarnas

Derived terms

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See also

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References

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Uzbek

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Uzbek Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia uz

Etymology

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Borrowed from Russian лифт (lift), from British English lift.

Noun

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lift (plural liftlar)

  1. elevator, lift

Declension

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Declension of lift
singular plural
nominative lift liftlar
genitive liftning liftlarning
dative liftga liftlarga
definite accusative liftni liftlarni
locative liftda liftlarda
ablative liftdan liftlardan
similative liftdek liftlardek
Possessive forms of lift
1st person singular
singular plural
nominative liftim liftlarim
genitive liftimning liftlarimning
dative liftimga liftlarimga
definite accusative liftimni liftlarimni
locative liftimda liftlarimda
ablative liftimdan liftlarimdan
similative liftimdek liftlarimdek
2nd person singular
singular plural
nominative lifting liftlaring
genitive liftingning liftlaringning
dative liftingga liftlaringga
definite accusative liftingni liftlaringni
locative liftingda liftlaringda
ablative liftingdan liftlaringdan
similative liftingdek liftlaringdek
3rd person singular
singular plural
nominative lifti liftlari
genitive liftining liftlarining
dative liftiga liftlariga
definite accusative liftini liftlarini
locative liftida liftlarida
ablative liftidan liftlaridan
similative liftidek liftlaridek
1st person plural
singular plural
nominative liftimiz liftlarimiz
genitive liftimizning liftlarimizning
dative liftimizga liftlarimizga
definite accusative liftimizni liftlarimizni
locative liftimizda liftlarimizda
ablative liftimizdan liftlarimizdan
similative liftimizdek liftlarimizdek
2nd person plural
singular plural
nominative liftingiz liftlaringiz
genitive liftingizning liftlaringizning
dative liftingizga liftlaringizga
definite accusative liftingizni liftlaringizni
locative liftingizda liftlaringizda
ablative liftingizdan liftlaringizdan
similative liftingizdek liftlaringizdek
3rd person plural
singular plural
nominative lifti liftlari
genitive liftining liftlarining
dative liftiga liftlariga
definite accusative liftini liftlarini
locative liftida liftlarida
ablative liftidan liftlaridan
similative liftidek liftlaridek
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Volapük

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Noun

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lift (nominative plural lifts)

  1. elevator
  2. altitude adjustor

Declension

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Declension of lift
singular plural
nominative lift lifts
genitive lifta liftas
dative lifte liftes
accusative lifti liftis
vocative 1 o lift! o lifts!
predicative 2 liftu liftus

1 status as a case is disputed
2 in later, non-classical Volapük only

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