give up

Formsgives up, giving up, gave up, given up

1. 1
   phrasal verbtransitive

   To stop doing something, such as an activity, a habit, or an effort.

   After three failed attempts, the climbers gave up their bid for the summit.

   Many adults give up trying to learn a language after the first few months.

   Similarcease, discontinue

   Oppositecontinue

   Note

   What is stopped can be a noun, as in giving up the search, or an -ing form, never a to-infinitive: people give up smoking or give up trying, as RAIL's Mystery Shopper does in 2025 when the train's WiFi refuses to connect. Habits are the classic object, and quit is the close partner.

2. 2
   phrasal verbintransitive

   To admit defeat and stop trying or resisting.

   Okay, I give up. What's the answer?

   The rebels finally gave up after a long siege and laid down their weapons.

   Similarsurrender, capitulate

   Oppositepersevere, persist

   Note

   With no object, it is the speaker's white flag. In conversation I give up concedes a riddle, a guess or an argument (OK, I give up, you win), while in Linkin Park's "Given Up" (2007) the perfect tense signals despair rather than courtesy, a person worn down and at war with themselves.

3. 3
   phrasal verbtransitive

   To hand over or let go of something you have.

   The senator agreed to give up her committee seat after the scandal.

   To keep the peace, the duke gave up his claim to the northern estates.

   Similarsurrender, yield

   Oppositekeep, retain

   Note

   The frame is often a trade: something given up goes to someone, as a seat to an old man, or for something, as land in exchange for peace. The object need not be physical; in Jane Austen's Emma (1816) a letter refuses to give up "the pleasure and honour" of a friendship "for any thing in the world."

4. 4
   stop hopingphrasal verbtransitive

   To lose hope for someone or something, often treating them as dead or lost.

   Rescuers refused to give up the trapped miners for dead and kept digging through the night.

   The sailor, long given up for dead, walked into his hometown one winter morning.

5. 5
   abandonphrasal verbtransitive

   To abandon someone or something, such as a belief, a plan, or a person you once stood by.

   The architects gave up the curved design in favor of a cheaper boxy one.

   Few people give up the faith they were raised in without a struggle.

   Similardesert, forsake

   Oppositekeep

   Note

   Plans and designs are given up in favor of something else: a curved design for a cheaper one, a streamlined nose for a blunt one. With a person as object it means desertion, which is why "Never Gonna Give You Up" (1987) lines it up beside let down and desert; Salman Rushdie's Fury (2001) turns it around, with a philosophy giving up the man who held it.

6. 6
   phrasal verbtransitive

   To let an opponent or another person gain something at your expense, such as runs in a game or useful information.

   The starter gave up two home runs in the third inning and was pulled from the game.

   The defense can't afford to give up another easy basket before halftime.

   Similarallow, concede, yield

   Note

   Here the giver is the loser: a pitcher gives up runs, a defense gives up baskets, and what is given up is whatever the other side scores or learns. Tyler Kepner's 2019 report on the Astros has a pitcher who "gave up nine runs, including five homers." Off the field it covers anything an opponent can use, such as clues.

7. 7
   phrasal verbtransitive

   To hand over someone or something, or to betray someone by informing on them.

   Facing a long prison term, the driver gave up the names of everyone in the smuggling ring.

   The villagers refused to give up the fugitive to the soldiers.

   Similarsurrender, yield

   Note

   A pronoun goes between the two words, a longer object after them: they gave him up to the police, but the driver gave up the names of everyone in the ring. With a reflexive it means surrender, as when a cornered man gives himself up; with to and an authority it shades into betrayal, handing someone over.

8. 8
   tell (a secret)phrasal verbslangUStransitive

   To reveal something, telling what you know.

   My little brother won't give up where he hid the remote.

   Under pressure, the kid gave up that he'd been the one leaving the gate open.

   Similarreveal, admit, tell, spill

   Note

   Friends use it to press for news in casual American slang: give it up! The object is often just it or a clause, as in give up who told you, and in Nintendo's Paper Mario (2004) a character urges, "Well, give it up, Prof! What did you find out!" In writing outside dialogue, reveal or tell is safer.

9. 9
   noun · give-upcolloquialcountable or uncountable

   The act of giving up, or a relinquishment of something held.

   There's no give-up in this team. They keep fighting until the final whistle.

   The new contract asks for give-ups on overtime pay and vacation days.

   Similarconcession, surrender

   Note

   The noun is hyphenated, give-up, while the verb stays two words. As a countable noun it means a concession, like the give-ups a union is asked for on overtime and vacation, or a trade handed on under the brokers' verb; as an uncountable one it means quitting itself, as in there's no give-up in this team.

10. 10
    pass a tradephrasal verbtransitive

    In finance, to carry out a trade on behalf of another broker.

    The executing broker will give up the trade to the fund's clearing firm at the end of the day.

    Under the agreement, the floor broker gave up each order to the client's prime broker.

    Note

    Brokers use it for handing a trade on: the firm that fills an order gives it up to another firm, such as the client's clearing firm or prime broker, which books and settles it. The object is the trade or the order, and the receiving firm follows to.

11. 11
    accept asphrasal verbdialectalUSintransitive

    To acknowledge or recognize someone as being something.

    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.

    1969, God Struck Me Dead; Religious Conversion Experiences and Autobiographies of Ex-Slaves, Philadelphia

    Note

    Regional American speech uses it in the passive with to be: in the ex-slave narratives of God Struck Me Dead (1969), a man recalls that he "was given up to be the best boxer around," meaning others granted him the title. Outside that dialect, say acknowledged as or recognized as.

12. 12
    devotedadjectivedialectalUS

    Wholly given over to a particular quality, activity, or trait.

    And now She Seems give up to Sin / Too much neglecting grace within

    c. 1808, Mary Woody, A true account of Nayomy Wise

    Note

    In this regional American use the bare form stands where standard English has given up, and what has taken the person over follows to: Mary Woody's A true account of Nayomy Wise (around 1808) says "She Seems give up to Sin." Read it as wholly given over to; outside dialect writing, given up to is the form to use.

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