give up the ghost

give up the ghost

English

Etymology

Literally, to release one's spirit or soul from the body at death. From Middle English "gaf up þe gost", "ʒave up þe gost", from Old English phrases as "hēo āġeaf hire gāst" (literally, "she gave up her ghost [spirit]"), "þæt iċ gāst mīnne āġifan mōte" (literally, "that I must give up my ghost [spirit]"). Compare German den Geist aufgeben and Dutch de geest geven.

Pronunciation

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Verb

give up the ghost (third-person singular simple present gives up the ghost, present participle giving up the ghost, simple past gave up the ghost, past participle given up the ghost)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To cease clinging to life; to die.

   Synonyms: yield up the ghost, yield the ghost; see also Thesaurus:die

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Mark 15:37:

     And Ieſus cryed with a loude voice, and gaue vp the ghoſt.

2. (intransitive, idiomatic, figuratively) To quit; to cease functioning.

   My old computer finally gave up the ghost the other day.

3. (intransitive, with of) To cede a commitment to or identification with.
   • 1993 February 8, “A Magical History Tour”, in Time:

     But McCartney, 50, is hardly ready to give up the ghost of his creative past.

   • 1995, Bad Boys

     Burnett holds the door while Lowrey holds Francine. She's broken, crying, and giving up the ghost of her past.

   • 2000 January 14, Kevin Maney, “Gates closes an era Microsoft prepares to lay out a road map”, in USA Today:

     Its Windows CE, ostensibly for consumer electronics, is flailing, largely because Microsoft has taken a PC mentality to develop CE, unable to give up the ghost of its heritage.

Translations

to die

Afrikaans: die gees gee (af) Arabic: please add this translation if you can Armenian: հոգին փչել (hy) (hogin pʿčʿel) Chinese: Mandarin: 斷氣／断气 (zh) (duànqì), 見閻王／见阎王 (jiàn Yánwáng) Czech: vypustit duši Dutch: de geest geven Finnish: heittää henkensä French: rendre l'âme (fr) German: den Geist aufgeben (de) Hindi: please add this translation if you can Hungarian: kileheli a lelkét Icelandic: gefa upp öndina Italian: rendere l'anima, esalare l'ultimo respiro Maori: pau te hau Polish: wyzionąć ducha (pl) pf Portuguese: bater as botas (pt), vestir o paletó de madeira (pt) Romanian: da duhul Russian: испусти́ть дух (ru) (ispustítʹ dux) Spanish: entregar el alma, entregar el alma a Dios, (colloquial) entregar el equipo, pasar a mejor vida Swedish: ge upp andan (sv) Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

See also

• draw one's last breath
• give up