give up

verb

gave up; given up; giving up; gives up

Definition of give up

transitive verb

1 : to yield control or possession of : surrender forced to give up his job

2 : to desist from : abandon refused to give up her efforts

3 : to declare incurable or insoluble

4a : to abandon (oneself) to a particular feeling, influence, or activity gave himself up to despair

b : to devote to a particular purpose or use

5 : to despair of seeing we'd given you up

6 : to allow (a hit or run in baseball) while pitching

intransitive verb

: to cease doing or attempting something especially as an admission of defeat : quit —often used with on don't give up on the project

give up the ghost

: to cease to live or function : die

Synonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about give up

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Examples of give up in a Sentence

was in so much debt he had to give up his house and move into a cheaper apartment I hope you won't give up playing the piano.

Recent Examples on the Web

DeMar DeRozan was the biggest piece that Toronto gave up in that deal, with Raptors President Masai Ujiri making the biggest move of his career. — Tim Reynolds, Houston Chronicle, "Source: Clippers to land Kawhi Leonard, Paul George," 6 July 2019 DeMar DeRozan was the biggest piece that Toronto gave up in that deal, with Raptors President Masai Ujiri making the biggest move of his career. — Tim Reynolds, BostonGlobe.com, "Clippers sign Kawhi Leonard, trade for Paul George," 6 July 2019 DeMar DeRozan was the biggest piece that Toronto gave up in that deal, with Raptors President Masai Ujiri making the biggest move of his career. — Tim Reynolds, chicagotribune.com, "Kawhi Leonard reportedly picks the Clippers, who also land Paul George in a trade with the Thunder," 6 July 2019 Fisher became Laguna Beach’s third starting goalkeeper in three seasons and, outside of a 6-0 loss at Marina, the Breakers gave up just five goals in their other five league matches. — Matt Szabo, latimes.com, "Daily Pilot Girls' Soccer Dream Team: Emily Johnson sparked big rise from Newport Harbor," 5 July 2019 Liam Hendriks, Yusmeiro Petit, Ryan Buchter, Joakim Soria (who gave up the game-tying home run to Miguel Sano), and Lou Trivino had already made that trot out to the mound. — Shayna Rubin, The Mercury News, "3 takeaways: A’s miss out on walk-off, Treinen’s return falls flat, and a Luzardo setback," 4 July 2019 Many of the countries that have given up on wealth taxes concluded that struggling with avoidance, and the high administrative costs of stopping it, for a relatively small amount of incremental tax revenue did not seem worth it. — The Economist, "Rich people’s problems," 4 July 2019 In 2016, a biennial report that had long served as an industry-wide pledge to sustain Moore’s law gave up and switched to other ways of defining progress. — Tom Simonite, WIRED, "Intel's New Chip Wizard Has a Plan to Bring Back the Magic," 3 July 2019 The Cavaliers also have some question marks on the offensive line after last year’s unit gave up 31 sacks. — Chaunte'l Powell, orlandosentinel.com, "2019 College Football Rankings: No. 54 Virginia makes push to move up Coastal standings," 2 July 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'give up.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.