lift
n. countablen. a machine that carries people or things up and down between floors in a building. In American English, people usually call this an elevator.
n. a platform or compartment housed in a shaft for raising and lowering people or things to different levels. Primarily British English; corresponds to the American 'elevator'.
The lift is broken, so we have to take the stairs.
I live on the tenth floor, so I always take the lift when I have heavy bags of groceries.
Modern skyscrapers require high-speed lift systems that use sophisticated algorithms to minimize wait times for passengers during peak morning hours.
From Middle English liften, lyften, from Old Norse lypta (“to lift, air”, literally “to raise in the air”), from Proto-Germanic luftijaną (“to raise in the air”), related to luftuz (“roof, air”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European lewp- (“to peel, break off, damage”) or from a root meaning roof (see luftuz). Cognate with Danish and Norwegian Bokmål løfte (“to lift”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish lyfta (“to lift”), German lüften (“to air, lift”), Old English lyft (“air”). See above. 1851 for the noun sense "a mechanical device for vertical transport". (To steal): For this sense Cleasby suggests perhaps a relation to the root of Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌹𐍆𐍄𐌿𐍃 (hliftus) "thief", cognate with Latin cleptus and Greek κλέπτω (kléptō)).
From Middle English lifte, luft, lefte (“air, sky, heaven”), from Old English lyft (“atmosphere, air”), from Proto-West Germanic luftu, from Proto-Germanic luftuz (“roof, sky, air”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewp- (“to peel, break off, damage”). Cognate with Old High German luft (“air”) (German Luft), Dutch lucht (“air”), Old Norse lopt, loft (“upper room, sky, air”). Doublet of loft and luft.
Commonly used in British, Australian, and New Zealand English. In North America, 'elevator' is the standard term for this machine.