gave way (to)

verb

past tense of give way (to)
as in took out

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for gave way (to)
  1. took out
  2. unleashed
Verb
  • One woman in West Virginia took out a loan this winter to cover an electric bill bigger than her paycheck.
    — David Kieve, Time, 10 July 2026
  • As the grid struggled in the heatwave, a power failure took out a major wastewater treatment facility on the Hudson river.
    — Choire Sicha, CNN Money, 5 July 2026
Definition of took out
Verb
  • On July 4th, eight people, including four children, were wounded when a gunman in a ski mask unleashed a hail of bullets at a Coney Island barbecue.
    — Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 11 July 2026
  • Takeovers are at once a timeless illustration of the volatility of crowds—perhaps especially adolescent crowds—and of the much newer potentialities unleashed by the internet a few decades ago.
    — Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 10 July 2026
Definition of unleashed
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

gave way
gave way (to)
gavotte
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Gave way (to).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gave%20way%20%28to%29. Accessed 17 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of obdurate

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 17
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
child-detective
Spot the Misspelled Word July 2026 Those little red underlines can't help you now...
See All