surrender

Formssurrenders, surrendering, surrendered

Pluralsurrenders

1. 1
   verbintransitivereflexive

   To stop fighting or resisting, especially by giving oneself up to an opponent as a prisoner.

   Outnumbered and exhausted, the troops chose to surrender.

   He refused to surrender even as the situation grew hopeless.

   Similarcapitulate, yield, submit, succumb

   Oppositeresist, fight

   Note

   Here the speaker is the thing given up. 'I surrender' needs no object, or it takes a reflexive one, as in 'he surrendered himself to the authorities.' The cry 'Don't shoot! I surrender!' shows the sense at its barest. Its idiomatic cousins come with pictures attached: strike one's flag, wave the white flag, chuck up the sponge. They make the same admission in livelier dress.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To hand something over so that someone else has it or gains authority over it.

   The company was forced to surrender all its assets to its creditors.

   They surrendered the documents demanded by the court.

   Similarrelinquish, yield, cede, forfeit

   Oppositeretain, keep

   Note

   Old French built the word from sur- and rendre, 'render', so to surrender something is, at root, to render it up. It entered English as Middle English surrendren and displaced a native Old English phrase, on hand gān, built on hand. The same image survives in its plainest synonym, hand over, and in the rarer overgive. The object is the thing given up, and to names who receives it.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To yield a town, fortification, or similar position to an enemy.

   The commander chose to surrender the garrison rather than face annihilation.

   The defenders surrendered the citadel once their supplies ran out.

   Similaryield, cede

   Oppositehold, defend

   Note

   A soldier's use, and a transitive one: the object is the place itself, such as the garrison, the citadel or the town. Such a yielding is typically made under negotiated terms of capitulation, which may govern how combatants and civilians are treated. Keep it distinct from giving oneself up, where the defenders take no object and become prisoners themselves.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of giving oneself up, of submitting into another's possession, or of complete resignation.

   The enemy's surrender was unconditional.

   Her quiet surrender to grief worried her friends.

   Similarcapitulation, submission, resignation, yielding

   Oppositeresistance, defiance

   Note

   The noun has its own history. It comes from Anglo-Norman surrendre, an infinitive put to work as a noun, and it displaced Old English handgang. It is countable for a single event, such as the enemy's surrender or a surrender after a siege. It is uncountable for a state or attitude, as in surrender to grief, which covers resignation and abandonment as well as defeat.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To give up possession of something; to yield or resign it.

   The mayor agreed to surrender his powers to an interim council.

   They surrendered their rights to the disputed land.

   Similarrelinquish, cede, renounce, waive, yield

   Oppositeretain, keep

6. 6
   verbreflexiveintransitive

   To let oneself be carried along by an emotion, passion, or other influence and stop resisting it.

   He finally surrendered to his curiosity and opened the letter.

   She let herself surrender to the music, allowing it to sweep her away.

   Similarsuccumb, yield, submit

   Oppositeresist

   Note

   The opponent is now inside: grief, despair, indolence, sleep. The full construction is reflexive, to surrender oneself to despair, and the to-phrase names the feeling or force that wins. Nobody is taken prisoner. The yielding is to one's own state of mind or body, so the word can describe a giving way that is welcome, as with sleep, as easily as one that is mourned.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   An act in which someone complies with a demand by handing over something they possess.

   The treaty required the surrender of all heavy weapons.

   The judge ordered the surrender of the defendant's passport pending trial.

   Similarhandover, relinquishment, delivery

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To voluntarily end an insurance contract before its term is up, usually expecting to receive a surrender value.

   The client decided to surrender the policy after ten years of payments.

   He surrendered his endowment plan to access the cash value.

   Note

   Insurance borrows the word for walking away early. A policyholder surrenders a life or endowment policy before maturity and gives up future coverage. In exchange, the policyholder receives the accumulated surrender value, less any applicable charges. Surrender value is the collocation to know: it names the cash paid out, and the decision to surrender usually turns on that sum.

9. 9
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   In blackjack, to give up one's hand and recover half of the original bet.

   Experienced players will surrender a hard sixteen against a dealer's ten.

   He chose to surrender the hand instead of hitting against a strong dealer card.

   Note

   A card-table term with strict timing. The player forfeits the hand immediately after the deal and takes back half the original wager, and the option exists only where the table rules allow it. The verb works with or without an object: a player can simply surrender, or surrender the hand. The half refund makes it a calculated retreat that cuts the loss short.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    In property law, the yielding of a leasehold estate by the tenant to the landlord, so that the tenancy merges into the landlord's interest and ceases to exist.

    The early surrender of the lease was recorded in a formal deed.

    A surrender of the tenancy extinguished the tenant's remaining obligations.

    Note

    Property law gives the noun a precise effect. When the lessee yields the leasehold back to the landlord, the tenancy for years merges into the reversion and is extinguished, typically before the term would otherwise expire. The estate can only go back to the landlord, not to a third party. Compare ending an insurance policy early: both release a contract before its time, but here the estate itself disappears.

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