English

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Etymology

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From rent +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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rental (countable and uncountable, plural rentals)

  1. Something that is rented.
    It's just a rental, so I don't need to take very good care of it.
    • 1999, David Gauntlett, Annette Hill, TV Living: Television, Culture and Everyday Life, page 158:
      Furthermore, whilst we would have been pleased to have been able to give you some quoteworthy examples of men cruelly dominating the choice of video movie rentals, these simply did not appear in the diaries either.
  2. The payment made to rent something.
    • 1977 December 17, Michael Bronski, Arthur Bressan, “Bressan's "Politics Of Celebration"”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 24, page 9:
      On a grass roots level we are making the film available at a nominal rental to gay organizations, student groups, and religious affiliates so that gay people and their straight friends can see GAY USA now.
  3. A business that rents out something to its customers.
  4. An act of renting.
  5. (sports) A player traded to a team with a year or less on his contract
    • 2012, Sean Pronger, Journeyman: The Many Triumphs (and Even More Defeats) Of A Guy Who's Seen Just About Everything in the Game of Hockey[1]:
      [When the trade deadline approaches], Everyone wants to talk about which preening millionaire is going to be shipped out of town because he can't get along with his GM, or what veteran is going to finally get a shot at a Cup, or which guy is going to a contender as a "rental." Sure, it's gossip. Is that so wrong?

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Japanese: レンタル (rentaru)

Translations

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Adjective

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rental (not comparable)

  1. Relating to rent.
  2. Relating to renting.
    • 2018, The Observer, The Observer view on the budget and the decade of austerity, 28 October :
      Deep welfare cuts and rising rents have resulted in a growing gap in many areas of the country between what help people on low incomes receive to cover their housing and what that housing actually costs in the private rental sector.

Translations

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Anagrams

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