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rent

 - 13 dictionary results

rent

1[rent]
–noun
1. a payment made periodically by a tenant to a landlord in return for the use of land, a building, an apartment, an office, or other property.
2. a payment or series of payments made by a lessee to an owner in return for the use of machinery, equipment, etc.
3. Economics. the excess of the produce or return yielded by a given piece of cultivated land over the cost of production; the yield from a piece of land or real estate.
4. profit or return derived from any differential advantage in production.
5. Obsolete. revenue or income.
–verb (used with object)
6. to grant the possession and enjoyment of (property, machinery, etc.) in return for the payment of rent from the tenant or lessee. (often fol. by out).
7. to take and hold (property, machinery, etc.) in return for the payment of rent to the landlord or owner.
–verb (used without object)
8. to be leased or let for rent: This apartment rents cheaply.
9. to lease or let property.
10. to take possession of and use property by paying rent: She rents from a friend.
11. for rent, available to be rented, as a home or store: an apartment for rent.

Origin:
1125–75; (n.) ME rente < OF < VL *rendita, fem. ptp. of *rendere (see render 1 ); (v.) ME renten < OF renter, deriv. of rente


rent⋅a⋅bil⋅i⋅ty, noun
rent⋅a⋅ble, adjective


7. lease, let. See hire.

rent

2[rent]
–noun
1. an opening made by rending or tearing; slit; fissure.
2. a breach of relations or union between individuals or groups; schism.
–verb
3. pt. and pp. of rend.

Origin:
1325–75 for v. sense; 1525–35 for def. 1; ME; see rend


1. tear, split, rift, cleft, rip, rupture, fracture. 2. division, separation.

rend

[rend] verb, rent, rend⋅ing.
–verb (used with object)
1. to separate into parts with force or violence: The storm rent the ship to pieces.
2. to tear apart, split, or divide: a racial problem that is rending the nation.
3. to pull or tear violently (often fol. by away, off, up, etc.).
4. to tear (one's garments or hair) in grief, rage, etc.
5. to disturb (the air) sharply with loud noise.
6. to harrow or distress (the heart) with painful feelings.
–verb (used without object)
7. to split or tear something.
8. to become torn or split.

Origin:
bef. 950; ME renden, OE rendan; c. OFris renda


rend⋅i⋅ble, adjective


2. rive, sunder, sever, cleave, chop, fracture, rupture. See tear 2 .
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To rent
rend   (rěnd)   
v.   rent (rěnt) or rend·ed, rend·ing, rends

v.   tr.
  1. To tear or split apart or into pieces violently. See Synonyms at tear1.

  2. To tear (one's garments or hair) in anguish or rage.

  3. To tear away forcibly; wrest.

  4. To pull, split, or divide as if by tearing: "Chip was rent between the impulse to laugh wildly and a bitterness that threatened hot tears" (Louis Auchincloss).

  5. To pierce or disturb with sound: a scream rent the silence.

  6. To cause pain or distress to: tales that rend the heart.

v.   intr.
To become torn or split; come apart.

[Middle English renden, from Old English rendan.]
rent 1   (rěnt)   
n.  
    1. Payment, usually of an amount fixed by contract, made by a tenant at specified intervals in return for the right to occupy or use the property of another.

    2. A similar payment made for the use of a facility, equipment, or service provided by another.

  1. The return derived from cultivated or improved land after deduction of all production costs.

  2. The revenue yielded by a piece of land in excess of that yielded by the poorest or least favorably located land under equal market conditions. Also called economic rent.

v.   rent·ed, rent·ing, rents

v.   tr.
  1. To obtain occupancy or use of (another's property) in return for regular payments.

  2. To grant temporary occupancy or use of (one's own property or a service) in return for regular payments: rents out TV sets.

v.   intr.
To be for rent: The cottage rents for $1,200 a month.

[Middle English rente, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *rendita, from feminine past participle of *rendere, to yield, return; see render.]
rent'a·bil'i·ty n., rent'a·ble adj.
rent 2   (rěnt)   
v.  A past tense and a past participle of rend.
n.  
  1. An opening made by rending; a rip.

  2. A breach of relations between persons or groups; a rift.

rent 3   (rěnt)   
n.   Slang
A parent. Often used in the plural: had to stay home with the rents.

[Short for parent.]
Our Living Language  : When young people talk about their rents, that is, their parents, they are using a slang term that is of interest to language historians, if not necessarily thrilling for parents themselves. The term is a prime example of one of the fundamental characteristics of slang, which continually creates novel ways of expressing what are often rather ordinary things (if parents may be considered ordinary things). Slang has recently produced two expressions for "parents" that have gained wide currency—rents and parental units. Both expressions demonstrate slang's use of unusual or creative linguistic means to achieve novelty of expression. While there are many slang terms, such as bod for body or rad for radical, that result from the clipping of unstressed syllables, rents is a clipping that drops a stressed syllable, much like the similar term za, "pizza." The desire to coin new ways of referring to things also leads speakers of slang to use circumlocutions like knuckle sandwich for "punch." Parental units falls into this category. It plays on the jargon of bureaucrats and social science, in which the world is viewed as so much data waiting to be quantified. The appearance of terms such as rents and parental units also shows that all available styles and levels of language can be grist for slang's mill—so long as the material is perceived as irreverent, funny, or just plain cool.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

rend 
O.E. rendon "to tear, cut," from W.Gmc. *randijanan (cf. O.Fris. renda "to cut, break," M.L.G. rende "anything broken"), related to rind. Not found in other Gmc. languages.

rent  (1)
"payment for use of property," 1137, from O.Fr. rente, from V.L. *rendita, prop. fem. pp. of rendere "to render" (see render). The verb is attested from 1362, from the noun. Rental (n.) "thing let out for rent" is recorded from 1952, Amer.Eng. Prefix rent-a- first attested 1921, mainly of businesses that rented various makes of car (Rentacar is a trademark registered in U.S. 1924); extended to other "temporary" uses since 1961.

rent  (2)
"torn place," 1535, noun use of M.E. renten "to tear, rend" (c.1366), variant of renden (see rend).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Legal Dictionary

Main Entry: rent
Function: noun
1 a : a return made by a tenant or occupant of real property to the owner for possession and use thereof; especially : a sum of money agreed upon between a landlord and tenant for the use of real property b in the civil law of Louisiana : a contract by which one party conveys to another to hold as owner a tract of land or other immovable property in perpetuity in exchange for payment of an annual sum or quantity of fruits c : the amount paid by a hirer of personal property to the owner for the use thereof d : a royalty under a mineral lease
2 : the portion of the income of an economy (as of a nation) attributable to land as a factor of production in addition to capital and labor—for rent : available for use or service in return for payment

Main Entry: rent
Function: transitive verb
1 : to grant the possession and enjoyment of in exchange for rent
2 : to take and hold under an agreement to pay rent intransitive verb 1 : to be for rent
2 a : to obtain use and possession of a place or property in exchange for rent b : to allow the possession and use of property in exchange for rent —rent·er also ren·tor /'ren-t&r/ noun
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Bible Dictionary

Rent

(Isa. 3:24), probably a rope, as rendered in the LXX. and Vulgate and Revised Version, or as some prefer interpreting the phrase, "girdle and robe are torn [i.e., are 'a rent'] by the hand of violence."

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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