Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US Und.) to steal; thus borrowing n., stealing; borrowed adj., stolen.

1669		R. L’Estrange Fables of Aesop LXVIII 68: What if [...] That Gay Furniture Borrow’d; T’other Fine Woman Clapt.
1680		E. Hickeringill Reflections on Late Libel etc. 19: He need not of told every Body how much he was indebted and did borrow of a Brother of the Quill.
1689		R. L’Estrange Erasmus Colloquies 241: The Art of Borrowing and Bubbling.
1828		Lytton Pelham III 274: Four times I have been in that shop where you saw me borrow the diamond ring, which you now remark upon my little finger.
1851		Leamington Spa Courier 22 Nov. 3/6: He quietly surveyed a butcher’s shop [...] then ‘borrowed’ a plump loin of pork.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 28 Sept. n.p.: Wallace ‘borrowed’ a gold watch and chain from a fellow-boarder.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 304: I called it borrowing, because that was what pap always called it; but Tom said it warn’t borrowing, it was stealing.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 138: Boots which had not been brushed since they had been borrowed.
1905		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Aug. 17/2: The night my cargo of whisky shifted and gave me a bad list to port, I took myself and the remains of an argument into a public park to consider things. I slept. Then someone borrowed my hat and boots, and stole the cigar stump and the umbrella. I woke much relieved.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 8 June 12/3: ‘I was going to borrow the Squire’s watch and things, and then do a bunk’.
1914		H. Chapin letter 6 Dec. in Soldier and Dramatist (1916) 44: The paper [...] is more a present to the corps than to me: we are the most perfect Communists imaginable – we call it ‘borrowing’ of course – in all minor matters such as paper, matches, etc.
1935		E. Freeman ‘The Whirling Hub’ in Afro-American 8 June 18/2: Bill was held in $2500 bail [...] because he ‘borrowed’ the carfrom the man who kindly gave him a lift.
1947		L.J. Valentine Night Stick 43: It was after an apprenticeship with a Bronx gang in automobile ‘borrowing’ and petty larceny that Crowley developed his boldness.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 177: Spanish Joe [...] brought back twenty gallons of Dago red in a ‘borrowed’ jeep.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 146: We’re gonna ride the cushions as soon as I can . . . ah . . . borrow a hunk of bread from Grandma Dracula’s purse.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 135: borrowing to steal.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 82: You buy that motor or borrow it?