Lift

How to spell lift

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lift

What does lift mean?

1. verbTo raise something to a higher position.
2. nounA mechanical car that carries people or goods between the floors of a building.
3. nounA free ride given to someone in a vehicle.

Lift in a sentence

• verb

  Please lift the box onto the top shelf.

• noun

  Take the lift to the fourth floor and turn left.

• noun

  She offered me a lift to the station after work.

• verb

  The crane can lift several tonnes at once.

• noun

  The office lift was out of order all morning.

• noun

  He gave his neighbour a lift into town this morning.

Where does lift come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Lift came into English in the 1300s from Old Norse lypta, meaning 'to raise into the air' or 'to elevate', which is closely related to the Old Norse word loft, meaning 'sky' or 'upper air'. That same loft root survives in the modern English word 'loft' for an upper room, so the family idea has always been about height and the space above. The original sense was simply the physical act of raising something, and over time English speakers extended it to abstract uses such as lifting spirits or lifting a ban. In British usage the noun came to name the mechanical car that raises people between floors, the device Americans call an elevator. The spelling has stayed short and phonetic throughout, so the word is rarely a trap; its Norse origin explains why it sits alongside everyday Scandinavian-derived words rather than the Latin-based 'elevate'.

How the word is built

• lift (from Old Norse lypta: to raise into the air); single root, no affixes