RENT

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rent mean? 

• RENT (noun)
  The noun RENT has 4 senses:

1. a payment or series of payments made by the lessee to an owner for use of some property, facility, equipment, or service

2. an opening made forcibly as by pulling apart

3. the return derived from cultivated land in excess of that derived from the poorest land cultivated under similar conditions

4. the act of rending or ripping or splitting something

  Familiarity information: RENT used as a noun is uncommon.

• RENT (verb)
  The verb RENT has 4 senses:

1. let for money

2. grant use or occupation of under a term of contract

3. engage for service under a term of contract

4. hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services

  Familiarity information: RENT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A payment or series of payments made by the lessee to an owner for use of some property, facility, equipment, or service

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("rent" is a kind of...):

annuity in advance (an annuity paid in a series of more or less equal payments at the beginning of equally spaced periods)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "rent"):

ground rent (payment for the right to occupy and improve a piece of land)

peppercorn rent (very low or nominal rent)

rack rent (an extortionate rent)

Derivation:

rent (engage for service under a term of contract)

rent (grant use or occupation of under a term of contract)

rent (let for money)

rent (hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services)

rental (of or relating to rent)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An opening made forcibly as by pulling apart

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

rent; rip; snag; split; tear

Context example:

she had snags in her stockings

Hypernyms ("rent" is a kind of...):

gap; opening (an open or empty space in or between things)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The return derived from cultivated land in excess of that derived from the poorest land cultivated under similar conditions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

economic rent; rent

Hypernyms ("rent" is a kind of...):

issue; payoff; proceeds; return; take; takings; yield (the income or profit arising from such transactions as the sale of land or other property)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of rending or ripping or splitting something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

rent; rip; split

Context example:

he gave the envelope a vigorous rip

Hypernyms ("rent" is a kind of...):

tear (the act of tearing)

• RENT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they rent    ... he / she / it rents   
Past simple: rented   
Past participle: rented   
-ing form: renting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Let for money

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

lease; rent

Context example:

We rented our apartment to friends while we were abroad

Hypernyms (to "rent" is one way to...):

contract; undertake (enter into a contractual arrangement)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

rent (a payment or series of payments made by the lessee to an owner for use of some property, facility, equipment, or service)

renter (an owner of property who receives payment for its use by another person)

renting (the act of paying for the use of something (as an apartment or house or car))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Grant use or occupation of under a term of contract

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

lease; let; rent

Context example:

I am leasing my country estate to some foreigners

Hypernyms (to "rent" is one way to...):

give (transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "rent"):

sublease; sublet (lease or rent all or part of (a leased or rented property) to another person)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sentence examples:

They rent cars to the tourists
They rent the tourists their cars

Also:

rent out (grant the services of or the temporary use of, for a fee)

Derivation:

rent (a payment or series of payments made by the lessee to an owner for use of some property, facility, equipment, or service)

renter (an owner of property who receives payment for its use by another person)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Engage for service under a term of contract

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

charter; engage; hire; lease; rent; take

Context example:

Shall we take a guide in Rome?

Hypernyms (to "rent" is one way to...):

acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

rent (a payment or series of payments made by the lessee to an owner for use of some property, facility, equipment, or service)

rental (the act of paying for the use of something (as an apartment or house or car))

renter (someone who pays rent to use land or a building or a car that is owned by someone else)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

charter; hire; lease; rent

Hypernyms (to "rent" is one way to...):

contract; undertake (enter into a contractual arrangement)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

rent (a payment or series of payments made by the lessee to an owner for use of some property, facility, equipment, or service)

renter (someone who pays rent to use land or a building or a car that is owned by someone else)

 Context examples 

‘Do you consider,’ said his companion to him, ‘that you will be obliged to pay three months’ rent and to lose the produce of your garden?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

There was an execution put into our house, for rent.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Alternatively, you may have rented or purchased a vacation home during this past year.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

His sister married my tenant in Somersetshire, the Croft, who rents Kellynch.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The veil of self-indulgence was rent from head to foot.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I went to the house agents, you know, and they said that Mr. Garcia’s rent was paid up all right and that everything was in order at Wisteria Lodge.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“You’ll need to rent this field before you can beat him, for he’ll stand a month of that kind of fly-flappin’.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To be tied down to the regular payment of such a sum, on every rent day, is by no means desirable: it takes away one's independence.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

He was up with his type-writer rent, but he estimated that he could get two months' credit on that, which would be eight dollars.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He was an old friend of McCarthy’s, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)