give
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English given, from Old Norse gefa (“to give”), from Proto-Germanic *gebaną (“to give”). Merged with native Middle English yiven, ȝeven, from Old English ġiefan, from the same Proto-Germanic source (compare the obsolete inherited English doublet yive).
Pronunciation
- enPR: gĭv, IPA(key): /ɡɪv/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪv
Verb
give (third-person singular simple present gives, present participle giving, simple past gave, past participle given)
- (ditransitive) To move, shift, provide something abstract or concrete to someone or something or somewhere.
- To transfer one's possession or holding of (something) to (someone).
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:give
- Antonyms: get, obtain, receive, take
- I gave him my coat.
- I gave my coat to the beggar.
- When they asked, I gave my coat.
- To make a present or gift of.
- I'm going to give my wife a necklace for her birthday.
- She gave a pair of shoes to her husband for their anniversary.
- He gives of his energies to the organization.
- To pledge.
- I gave him my word that I'd protect his children.
- To provide (something) to (someone), to allow or afford.
- I gave them permission to miss tomorrow's class.
- Please give me some more time.
- To cause (a sensation or feeling) to exist in.
- It gives me a lot of pleasure to be here tonight.
- The fence gave me an electric shock.
- My mother-in-law gives me nothing but grief.
- To carry out (a physical interaction) with (something).
- I want to give you a kiss.
- She gave him a hug.
- I'd like to give the tire a kick.
- I gave the boy a push on the swing.
- She gave me a wink afterwards, so I knew she was joking.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698, page 68:
- Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway, […] .
- To pass (something) into (someone's hand, etc.).
- Give me your hand.
- On entering the house, he gave his coat to the doorman.
- To cause (a disease or condition) in, or to transmit (a disease or condition) to.
- My boyfriend gave me chlamydia.
- He was convinced that it was his alcoholism that gave him cancer.
- a. 1700, William Temple, “Heads, Designed for an Essay on Conversation”, in Miscellanea. The Third Part. [...], London: […] Jonathan Swift, […] Benjamin Tooke, […], published 1701, OCLC 23640974, page 331:
- Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
- To transfer one's possession or holding of (something) to (someone).
- (transitive) To provide, as, a service or a broadcast.
- They're giving my favorite show!
- 1993, Business Law Today:
- We hope that the need to "give good e-mail" in response to questions from clients and potential clients will in fact induce firms to get serious about storing and reusing their expertise – and even become open to tailoring […]
- 2003, Iain Aitken, Value-Driven IT Management: Commercializing the IT Function, page 153
- […] who did not have a culture in which 'giving good presentation' and successfully playing the internal political game was the way up.
- 2006, Christopher Matthew Spencer The Ebay Entrepreneur, page 248
- A friendly voice on the phone welcoming prospective new clients is a must. Don't underestimate the importance of giving good "phone".
- 2012 January 1, George Zinkan, Advertising Research: The Internet, Consumer Behavior, and Strategy, Marketing Classics Press, →ISBN, page 28:
- Social skills are required to meet new people in a chat room and maintain contact over time (“Do you give good e-mail?”). The Internet provides people with an opportunity to reinvent or misrepresent themselves.
- 2016 November 25, Gabrielle Jamela Hosein; Lisa Outar, Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought: Genealogies, Theories, Enactments, Springer, →ISBN, page 54:
- He gives good face too, posing for the camera with hands on waist, eyes forward, legs crossed (Fig. 4.1).
- (ditransitive) To estimate or predict (a duration or probability) for (something).
- I give it ten minutes before he gives up.
- I give it a 95% chance of success.
- I'll give their marriage six months.
- (intransitive) To yield or collapse under pressure or force.
- Synonyms: give way, bend, cede, flex, move, yield
- Antonym: resist
- 1992, Garry Wills, “prologue”, in Lincoln at Gettysburg, page 21:
- A soldier noticed how earth "gave" as he walked over the shallow trenches.
- One pillar gave, then more, and suddenly the whole floor pancaked onto the floor below.
- (intransitive) To lead (onto or into).
- The master bedroom gives onto a spacious balcony.
- 2022 February 3, Terry Marsh, Walking the Dales Way: Ilkley to Bowness-on-Windermere through the Yorkshire Dales, Cicerone Press Limited, →ISBN:
- Beyond the stile stands an attractive row of riverside trees – alder, hazel, beech, hawthorn and ash. Go across to the far corner of a field, where a through-stile gives onto a small, lightly wooded hill, […]
- (transitive, dated) To provide a view of.
- His window gave the park.
- 2006, Pierre Lagayette, Nature et progrès: interactions, exclusions, mutations, Presses Paris Sorbonne, →ISBN, page 61:
- Columbus dwellers of Woodland Meadow Apts may not find themselves in a perfectly bucolic setting, as the residential complex gives onto a military defense logistics ground.
- To exhibit as a product or result; to produce; to yield.
- The number of men, divided by the number of ships, gives four hundred to each ship.
- To cause; to make; used with the infinitive.
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene viii], page 171:
- But there the duke was given to understand / That in a gondola were seen together / Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica.
-
- To cause (someone) to have; produce in (someone); effectuate.
- 1997, Jim Smoke, How a Man Measures Success, page 82:
- "Can do" gives me a choice, while "should do" gives me a complex.
-
- To allow or admit by way of supposition; to concede.
- He can be bad-tempered, I'll give you that, but he's a hard worker.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- I give not heaven for lost.
- To attribute; to assign; to adjudge.
- 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, page 6:
- I don't wonder at people giving him to me for a lover.
-
- To communicate or announce (advice, tidings, etc.); to pronounce or utter (an opinion, a judgment, a shout, etc.).
- The umpire finally gave his decision: the ball was out.
- (dated or religion) To grant power, permission, destiny, etc. (especially to a person); to allot; to allow.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Deuteronomy 12:1:
- These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the Lᴏʀᴅ God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth.
- 1700, Nicholas Rowe, The Ambitious Stepmother, page 13:
- once again
'Tis given me to behold my friend.
- 1725, Homer; [Alexander Pope], transl., “Book III”, in The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, OCLC 8736646:
- Then give thy friend to shed the sacred wine.
-
- (reflexive) To devote or apply (oneself).
- The soldiers give themselves to plunder.
- That boy is given to fits of bad temper.
- (obsolete) To become soft or moist.
- 1590, John Smyth, A Discourse […] concerning […] weapons:
- Some moyst weather hath‥caused the powder to give and danke.
-
- (obsolete) To shed tears; to weep.
- c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene iii], page 94:
- Whose eyes do never give / But through lust and laughter.
-
- (obsolete) To have a misgiving.
- c. 1608-1634, John Webster, Appius and Virginia, page 16
- My mind gives ye're reserv'd / To rob poor market women.
- c. 1608-1634, John Webster, Appius and Virginia, page 16
- (slang) To be going on, to be occurring; Only used in what gives?
- (slang) To exceed expectations.
- Your outfit is giving!
Conjugation
Conjugation of give
| infinitive | (to) give | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| present tense | past tense | ||
| 1st-person singular | give | gave | |
| 2nd-person singular | give, givest† | gave, gavest† | |
| 3rd-person singular | gives, giveth† | gave | |
| plural | give | ||
| subjunctive | give | gave | |
| imperative | give | — | |
| participles | giving | given | |
†Archaic or obsolete.
Derived terms
See also given, giver and giving
- begive
- don't give me that
- don't give up the day job
- don't give up your day job
- foregive
- fore-give
- forgive
- give 110%
- give a bad name
- give about
- give a bugger
- give a crap
- give a damn
- give a darn
- give a fig
- give a flying fuck
- give a fuck
- give against
- give a good account of oneself
- give a gun
- give a hang
- give a hoot
- give a hundred percent
- give a knee
- give a light
- give a loose
- give a man a fish
- give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
- give a monkey's
- give-and-go
- give and take
- give-and-take
- give an eye-tooth
- give a rats
- give a rat's arse
- give a rat's ass
- give a rip
- give as good as one gets
- give a shit
- give a shite
- give a sneck posset
- give a stuff
- give a tinker's cuss
- give a tinker's damn
- give a tin shit
- give a toss
- give-away
- give away
- give-away shop
- give away the farm
- give away the store
- give back
- give battle
- give birth
- give blood
- give brain
- give by
- give chase
- give credit where credit is due
- give cry
- give curry
- give dome
- givee
- give ear
- give face
- give forth
- give gray hair to
- give grey hair to
- give ground
- give hat
- give head
- give heed
- give him enough rope and he'll hang himself
- give in
- give into
- give it a rest
- give it large
- give it mouth
- give it one's all
- give it one's best shot
- give it some welly
- give it the gun
- give it to someone
- give it up
- give it up for
- give lie to
- give lip
- give me
- give me strength
- given
- give neck
- give notice
- give off
- give of oneself
- give one a yell
- give one enough rope
- give one's all
- give one's daughter away
- give oneself airs
- give one's eye-teeth
- give one's head a shake
- give one's left nut
- give one's notice
- give one's right arm
- give one's word
- give one the lie in one's throat
- give on to
- give or take
- give out
- give out stink
- give over
- give pause
- give paw
- give place
- give rise to
- give someone a bell
- give someone a bloody nose
- give someone a break
- give someone a buzz
- give someone a chance
- give someone a hand
- give someone a hard time
- give someone a jingle
- give someone a kiss
- give someone an earful
- give someone an inch and someone will take a mile
- give someone a piece of one's mind
- give someone a ring
- give someone a speaking to
- give someone five
- give someone gray hair
- give someone grey hair
- give someone grief
- give someone Hail Columbia
- give someone his cards
- give someone his gruel
- give someone his hat
- give someone his head
- give someone his head on a plate
- give someone his head on a platter
- give someone Jesse
- give someone Jessie
- give someone line
- give someone one
- give someone the air
- give someone the arm
- give someone the bag
- give someone the boot
- give someone the brush-off
- give someone the business
- give someone the chair
- give someone the cold shoulder
- give someone the creeps
- give someone the eye
- give someone the gears
- give someone the heave-ho
- give someone the old heave-ho
- give someone the runaround
- give someone the shits
- give someone the slip
- give someone the time of day
- give someone what for
- give someone what-for
- give someone wood
- give some skin
- give something a go
- give something a miss
- give something a shot
- give something a try
- give something a whirl
- give something up as a bad job
- give stick
- give suck
- give thanks
- give the axe
- give the bird
- give the devil his due
- give the dirts
- give the elbow
- give the finger
- give the floor
- give the game away
- give the go-by
- give the lie
- give the lie to
- give them an inch and they'll take a mile
- give them an inch and they'll take an ell
- give the mitten to
- give the royal treatment
- give the stem
- give the store away
- give the time of day
- give thought
- give toco
- give tongue
- give to understand
- give two hoots
- give two shits
- give up
- give up the ghost
- give vent to
- give voice
- give way
- give way sign
- give weight
- give what for
- give with one hand and take away with the other
- it is better to give than to receive
- not give much for someone's chances
- overgive
- something's got to give
- upgive
- what gives?
- you only get what you give
Translations
transfer the possession of something to someone else
|
bend slightly when a force is applied
|
Noun
give (uncountable)
- The amount of bending that something undergoes when a force is applied to it; a tendency to yield under pressure; resilience.
- This chair doesn't have much give.
- There is no give in his dogmatic religious beliefs.
- 1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 13:
- The striker's job was onerous, too, because there was so little "give" in the metal, and the perpetual jarring was indeed trying to the muscles.
Translations
give (noun)
|
Noun
give (plural gives)
- Alternative form of gyve
References
- give at OneLook Dictionary Search
- Isaac Livingstone Asamoah (2016-06-23) Digestive Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs, Partridge Africa, →ISBN: “Give onto: If a window, door, or building gives onto a particular place, it leads to that place or you can see that place from it.”
Chinese
Etymology
Probably from clipping of English give a shit.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɪf⁵⁵/
Verb
give
- (Hong Kong Cantonese, neologism, chiefly in the negative) to give a shit; to care about; to pay attention to someone
Danish
Alternative forms
- gi' (representing the spoken language)
Etymology
From Old Norse gefa, from Proto-Germanic *gebaną, cognate with English give and German geben. The Germanic verbs go back to Proto-Indo-European *gʰebʰ- (“to give”) (hence Sanskrit गभस्ति (gábhasti, “arm”)); rather than *gʰeh₁bʰ- (“to grab”) (whence Latin habeō (“to have”)).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈɡ̊iˀ], [ˈɡ̊i], (formal) IPA(key): [ˈɡ̊iːʋə]
- Rhymes: -iː, -iːvɐ
Verb
give (imperative giv, present tense giver, past tense gav, past participle givet, c given, givne)
- to give
Conjugation
Inflection of give
| present | past | |
|---|---|---|
| simple | giver | gav |
| perfect | har givet | havde givet |
| passive | gives | — |
| participle | givende | givet |
| imperative | giv | — |
| infinitive | give | — |
| auxiliary verb | have | — |
| gerund | — | — |
Derived terms
Derived terms
- given
- givende
- giver
- giverland
- givet
- givetvis
Swedish
Verb
give
- present subjunctive of giva
- (Can we date this quote?), Hergé, Karin Janzon; Allan Janzon, transl., Det svarta guldet [Land of Black Gold] (The Adventures of Tintin), Malmö: Nordisk Bok, →ISBN, page 36:
- Ali Ben Mahmoud: 'Himlen give att det vore en ny lek! Han har försvunnit, min herre!'
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
-
Anagrams
- evig