rent Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a payment or series of payments made by the lessee to an owner for use of some property, facility, equipment, or service
  2. noun an opening made forcibly as by pulling apart
    tear; split; rip; snag.
    • there was a rip in his pants
    • she had snags in her stockings
  3. noun the return derived from cultivated land in excess of that derived from the poorest land cultivated under similar conditions
    economic rent.
  4. noun the act of rending or ripping or splitting something
    rip; split.
    • he gave the envelope a vigorous rip
  5. verb let for money
    lease.
    • We rented our apartment to friends while we were abroad
  6. verb grant use or occupation of under a term of contract
    let; lease.
    • I am leasing my country estate to some foreigners
  7. verb engage for service under a term of contract
    hire; engage; charter; take; lease.
    • We took an apartment on a quiet street
    • Let's rent a car
    • Shall we take a guide in Rome?
  8. verb hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services
    hire; charter; lease.
  9. verb tear or be torn violently
    rive; pull; rend; rip.
    • The curtain ripped from top to bottom
    • pull the cooked chicken into strips

WordNet

Rent intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To rant. R. & Obs. Hudibras.
Rent
Definitions
  1. imp. & p. p. of Rend.
Rent noun
Etymology
From Rend.
Definitions
  1. An opening made by rending; a break or breach made by force; a tear.
    See what a rent the envious Casca made. Shak.
  2. Figuratively, a schim; a rupture of harmony; a separation; as, a rent in the church. Syn. -- Fissure; breach; disrupture; rupture; tear; diaceration; break; fracture.
Rent transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To tear. See Rend. Obs. Chaucer.
Rent noun
Etymology
F. rente, LL. renta, fr. L. reddita, fem. sing. or neut. pl. of redditus, p. p. of reddere to give back, pay. See Render.
Definitions
  1. Incone; revenue. See Catel. Obs. "Catel had they enough and rent." Chaucer.
    [Bacchus] a waster was and all his rent In wine and bordel he dispent. Gower.
    So bought an annual rent or two, And liv'd, just as you see I do. Pope.
  2. Pay; reward; share; toll. Obs.
    Death, that taketh of high and low his rent. Chaucer.
  3. (Law) A certain periodical profit, whether in money, provisions, chattels, or labor, issuing out of lands and tenements in payment for the use; commonly, a certain pecuniary sum agreed upon between a tenant and his landlord, paid at fixed intervals by the lessee to the lessor, for the use of land or its appendages; as, rent for a farm, a house, a park, etc. ✍ The term rent is also popularly applied to compensation for the use of certain personal chattles, as a piano, a sewing machine, etc.
Rent transitive verb
Etymology
F. renter. See Rent, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Rented; present participle & verbal noun Renting
Definitions
  1. To grant the possession and enjoyment of, for a rent; to lease; as, the owwner of an estate or house rents it. = rent out; to let
  2. To take and hold under an agreement to pay rent; as, the tennant rents an estate of the owner.
Rent intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To be leased, or let for rent; as, an estate rents for five hundred dollars a year.

Webster 1913