rent out or rent.

[lapot]

Hello. I've got a question. It's about the meaning or difference between rent and rent out, but in a specific context. I've come across the following examples which have broken my understanding of the verb 'rent out'. Here, two examples:

1) Beyonce and her hip-hop hubby, Jay-Z, rented out the hospital’s entire fourth floor for $1.3 million, the employee said.
2) Kanye West has been living in the Lanesborough Hotel, where he rented out the entire top floor, the last few months.

In every dictionary I've looked in, it says that rent out means: to allow someone to use something that you own such as a house or some land in exchange for regular payments. This can be expressed with some other words but this is the definiton provided by the dictionaries.

But in my examples (and I'm sure in many more) rent out means that this people are paying for something that other person owns. Just the opposite.
So I think using 'rent out' in those examples could be incorrect, but used. But I think rented would be better.

Any thoughts on that? MaybeI'm missing something and I'm totally wrong... Thanks in advance!

 

[Beryl from Northallerton]

I agree with your analysis - the hip hop examples are flawed.

 

[PaulQ]

Yes both examples are examples of misuse of to rent out - the definition is as you, and the dictionaries, say.

 

[Messquito]

I'd like to add some of my thoughts here.

I think the writer in both sentences were confusing "buy out" with "rent out" (as in a restaurant buyout), hence the "out's" here indicate that they were having the entire space to themselves, not the direction of the action. That sounds plausible to me, but still, it would require a native speaker's confirmation.

 

[suzi br]

Strange revival of an ancient thread.

I still think it’s just an error.