give up
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: gives up
form: giving up
form: gave up
form: given up
Senses: examples: text: He was surrounded, so gave himself up.
text: They gave him up to the police.
synonyms: surrender
yield
glosses: To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
examples: text: He gave up his seat to an old man.
text: The king gave up land in exchange for peace.
text: "Dear Miss Woodhouse, I would not give up the pleasure and honour of being intimate with you for any thing in the world."
ref: 1816, Jane Austen, chapter 7, in Emma, volume 1:
synonyms: word: forlend
word: surrender
word: yield
coordinate_terms: give away#Verb
glosses: To relinquish (something)
examples: text: A good pitcher will give up very few home runs.
text: Don't tell them where you are, and try not to give up any clues either.
text: Fiers, who now pitches for the Oakland Athletics, has gone 27-12 with a no-hitter in two years since leaving the Astros. But the last time he faced them, on Sept. 9, he gave up nine runs, including five homers, and got just three outs.
ref: 2019 November 14, Tyler Kepner, “After Reports of Astros' Cheating, M.L.B. Is Left to Restore Trust”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Jan 2023:
glosses: To have someone obtain (something) to one's disadvantage; to concede.
examples: text: They gave up the search when it got dark.
text: Once again, the WiFi isn't willing to work. When the guard comes to check tickets, I ask him if it ever works. He rolls his eyes and tells me it rarely does. He says I'll be lucky if I get it to connect. I give up trying.
ref: 2025 October 15, 'Mystery Shopper', “About Anglia... and high scores”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 54:
synonyms: word: blin
word: cease
word: discontinue
glosses: To stop or quit (an activity, etc.)
examples: text: I gave up my faith years ago.
text: The semi-streamlined contour of the earlier G.W.R. railcars has been given up in favour of a more utilitarian blunt-nose end, and effective floor space gained thereby.
ref: 1941 October, “Notes and News: Great Western Parcels Railcar”, in Railway Magazine, page 474:
text: Never gonna give you up / Never gonna let you down / Never gonna run around and desert you
ref: 1987, Stock Aitken Waterman, “Never Gonna Give You Up”, in Whenever You Need Somebody, performed by Rick Astley:
text: The optimistic peace-and-love philosophy of his youth having given him up, he no longer knew how to reconcile himself to an increasingly phoney (he loathed, in this context, the otherwise excellent word “virtual”) reality.
ref: 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 7:
text: "I tried retirement ten years ago. Didn't think much of it. Complete waste of time. So I gave it up after two weeks."
ref: 2021 November 3, Adrian Shooter talks to Paul Clifton, “A lifetime of railway achievements”, in RAIL, number 943, page 34:
synonyms: word: desert
word: forlet
word: forsake
glosses: To abandon (someone or something)
examples: text: They gave him up for dead.
glosses: To lose hope concerning (someone or something)
examples: text: OK, I give up, you win.
text: Wake in a sweat again / Another day's been laid to waste / In my disgrace / Stuck in my head again / Feels like I'll never leave this place / There's no escape / I'm my own worst enemy / I've given up / I'm sick of feeling / Is there nothing you can say? / Take this all away / I'm suffocating
ref: 2007, “Given Up”, Mike Shinoda (lyrics), performed by Linkin Park:
synonyms: capitulate
give in#Verb
surrender
wave the white flag
coordinate_terms: give out#Verb
give way#Verb
glosses: To admit defeat, capitulate.
topics: business
finance
glosses: To execute a trade on behalf of another broker.
examples: text: The next morning, Sunday, I was boxing with R., who had come over with three or four others to swap a few with me. I was given up to be the best boxer around, and I laid them cold as fast as they came at me.
ref: 1969, God Struck Me Dead; Religious Conversion Experiences and Autobiographies of Ex-Slaves, Philadelphia, P.A.; Boston, M.A.: Pilgrim Press, page 45:
glosses: To acknowledge, recognize as.
examples: text: He gave up that he was the one who opened the door.
text: Well, give it up, Prof! What did you find out!
ref: 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Rogueport:
glosses: To reveal (something).
Derived terms: don't give up your day job
give it up
giver-upper
give-up
give up the ghost