give

Middle English given, from Old Norse gefa (“to give”), from Proto-Germanic *gebaną (“to give”). Displaced yive, from Middle English yiven, of the same origin.

• enPR: gĭv, IPA^(key): /ɡɪv/

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• Rhymes: -ɪv

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

1. (ditransitive) To move, shift, provide something abstract or concrete to someone or something or somewhere.
   1. To transfer one's possession or holding of (something) to (someone). synonym, antonyms ▲

      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.

   2. 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.

   3. To pledge.

      I gave him my word that I'd protect his children.

   4. To provide (something) to (someone), to allow or afford.

      I gave them permission to miss tomorrow's class.

      Please give me some more time.

   5. To cause (a sensation or feeling) to exist in (the specified person, or the target, audience, etc). quotations ▼

      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.

      it's giving me bad vibes — It's giving me old Hollywood (vibes)

      • 2023 February 21, Lakita Wilson, Last Chance Dance, Penguin, →ISBN, page 81:

        "The outfit is giving me eighties fitness video vibes, but you wear it well."

   6. (slang, transitive) To give off (a certain vibe or appearance). [2019?–] (Compare giving.) quotations ▼

      it's giving old Hollywood (vibes)

      • 2022 October 25, Medina Azaldin, ELLE Beauty Team, “30 Halloween Nail Art Trends To Get You In The Mood For Trick Or Treat”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

        [subtitle:] It's giving Wednesday Addams at the salon...

      • 2023 May 30, Sophie Williams, “Kylie Jenner is giving Marilyn Monroe vibes in her latest Instagram post”, in Cosmopolitan‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Hearst Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 September 2023:

        It's giving old Hollywood

      • 2023 June 12, Wilson Wong, “Gov Ball Raves on in Pink, Amid Rain and Smoke”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 June 2023:

        Your outfit is giving more romance than bloodshed. Are you currently in love?

      • 2023 July 20, Rachel Krause, quoting Gabby Ragsdale, “4 Students On The Back-To-School Outfits They're Shopping Their Closets For”, in Refinery29‎^[3], archived from the original on 10 September 2023:

        This outfit gives 'college girl that knows what she's doing' and even though I am the furthest from that, I'll take it.

   7. To carry out (a physical interaction) with (something). quotations ▼

      I want to give you a kiss and a hug.

      As mom gave us a long look, I gave a sigh and my sister gave a laugh.

      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, 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, […] .

   8. To pass (something) into (someone's hand, etc.).

      Give me your hand.

      On entering the house, he gave his coat to the doorman.

   9. To cause (a disease or condition) in, or to transmit (a disease or condition) to. quotations ▼

      My boyfriend gave me chlamydia.

      He was convinced that it was his alcoholism that gave him cancer.

      • a. 1700 (date written), William Temple, “Heads, Designed for an Essay on Conversation”, in Miscellanea. The Third Part. […], London: […] Jonathan Swift, […] Benjamin Tooke, […], published 1701, →OCLC, 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.

   10. To provide or administer (a medication)

       The doctors gave me morphine for the pain.

2. (transitive) To provide, as, a service or a broadcast. quotations ▼

   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).

3. (ditransitive) To estimate or predict (a duration or probability) for (something).

   I give it ten minutes before he gives up.

   I'd give it a 95% chance of success.

   I'll give their marriage six months.

4. (intransitive) To yield or collapse under pressure or force. synonyms, antonym ▲quotations ▼

   Synonyms: give way, bend, cede, flex, move, yield

   Antonym: resist

   One pillar gave, then more, and suddenly the whole floor pancaked onto the floor below.

   • 1992, Garry Wills, “prologue”, in Lincoln at Gettysburg, page 21:

     A soldier noticed how earth "gave" as he walked over the shallow trenches.

5. (intransitive) To lead (onto or into). quotations ▼

   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, […]

6. (transitive, dated) To provide a view of. quotations ▼

   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.

7. 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.

8. To cause; to make; used with the infinitive. quotations ▼
   • 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, [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.

9. To cause (someone) to have; produce in (someone); effectuate. quotations ▼
   • 1997, Jim Smoke, How a Man Measures Success, page 82:

     "Can do" gives me a choice, while "should do" gives me a complex.

11. To allow or admit by way of supposition; to concede. synonyms ▲quotations ▼

    Synonyms: allow, concede, grant

    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], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

      I give not heaven for lost.

12. To attribute; to assign; to adjudge. quotations ▼
    • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, page 6:

      I don't wonder at people giving him to me for a lover.

13. 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.

14. (dated or religion) To grant power, permission, destiny, etc. (especially to a person); to allot; to allow. quotations ▼
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 12:1:

      These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the Lord 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, “Book III”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

      Then give thy friend to shed the sacred wine.

15. (reflexive) To devote or apply (oneself).

    The soldiers give themselves to plunder.

    That boy is given to fits of bad temper.

16. (obsolete) To become soft or moist. quotations ▼
    • 1590, John Smyth, A Discourse […] concerning […] weapons:

      Some moyst weather hath‥caused the powder to give and danke.

17. (obsolete) To shed tears; to weep. quotations ▼
    • 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, [Act IV, scene iii], page 94:

      Whose eyes do never give / But through lust and laughter.

18. (obsolete) To have a misgiving. quotations ▼
    • c. 1608-1634, John Webster, Appius and Virginia, page 16

      My mind gives ye're reserv'd / To rob poor market women.

See also given, giver and giving

give (uncountable)

1. The amount of bending that something undergoes when a force is applied to it; a tendency to yield under pressure; resilience. quotations ▼

   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.

give (plural gives)

1. Alternative form of gyve

• “give”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Isaac Livingstone Asamoah (2016 June 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.”

Probably from clipping of English give a shit.

• IPA^(key): /kɪf⁵⁵/

give

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, neologism, chiefly in the negative) to give a shit; to care about; to pay attention to someone

• gi' (representing the spoken language)

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”)).

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡ̊iˀ], [ˈɡ̊i], (formal) IPA^(key): [ˈɡ̊iːʋə]
• Rhymes: -iː, -iːvɐ

give (imperative giv, present tense giver, past tense gav, past participle givet, c given, givne)

1. to give

give

1. (archaic) present subjunctive of giva quotations ▼
   • (Can we date this quote?), Hergé, translated by Karin Janzon and Allan Janzon, Det svarta guldet (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 quotation)

• evig