A pawnbroker is a person whose job is to lend you money if you leave something valuable with them — a ring, a watch, a laptop, a guitar. They keep the thing and give you a ticket and a loan. If you bring the money back in time, plus their fee, you get the thing back. If you do not, they can sell it. That is the point of the job: they are not lending on a smile, they are lending against an object they can sell. The customer is the one who pawns the thing; the pawnbroker is the one who takes it in. In stories the word can sound dusty or a bit sad, as if only desperate people go there — though actually plenty of people use a pawnbroker in a calm, everyday way, the way you might use a bank if the bank will not help. British English likes this word; Americans often talk about the pawn shop and the person behind the desk in the same breath. It is an old business, still common, and a little more formal in writing than in speech.

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