rent

Etymology 1

From Middle English rent, rente, from Old French rente, from Early Medieval Latin rendita, from Late Latin rendere, from Latin reddere.

noun

1. A payment made by a tenant at intervals in order to occupy a property.
   I am asking £300 a week rent.
2. A similar payment for the use of a product, equipment or a service.
3. (economics) A profit from possession of a valuable right, as a restricted license to engage in a trade or business.
   A New York city taxicab license earns more than $10,000 a year in rent.
4. An object for which rent is charged or paid.
5. (obsolete) Income; revenue.

verb

1. (transitive) To occupy premises in exchange for rent.
   I rented a house from my friend's parents for a year.
2. (transitive) To grant occupation in return for rent.
   We rented our house to our son's friend for a year.
3. (transitive) To obtain or have temporary possession of an object (e.g. a movie) in exchange for money.
4. (intransitive) To be leased or let for rent.
   The house rents for five hundred dollars a month.

Etymology 2

From Middle English renten (“to tear”). Variant form of renden.

noun

1. A tear or rip in some surface.
   The oscillations were getting so severe that painters on the bridge learned to tie down their tins before a train passed. They found holes and rents in the iron but never reported them as they were never asked, and it wasn't their job. These were deferential times, and few wanted to talk out of turn. September 23 2020, Paul Bigland, “The tragic tale of the Tay Bridge disaster”, in Rail, page 81
2. A division or schism.
   […] the White House was considering sending Vice President Humphrey to Cairo to patch up the many rents in U.S.—Egyptian relations. 2002, Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967

verb

1. simple past and past participle of rend

adj

1. That has been torn or rent; ripped; torn.
   Cleopatra is rent by a struggle between her newly-acquired dignity as a queen, and a strong impulse to put out her tongue at him. 1898, George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra