give up

1. 1.

   lose (s.th.) or lose the right to (s.th.) by some error, offense, or crime

   “you've forfeited your right to name your successor”

   “forfeited property”

   Synonymsforfeitthrow overboardwaiveforgoforego

   Broaderabandon

   Narrowerlapse
2. 2.

   give up with the intent of never claiming again

   “Abandon your life to God”

   “She gave up her children to her ex-husband when she moved to Tahiti”

   “We gave the drowning victim up for dead”

   Synonymsabandon

   Narrowerforeswear
3. 3.

   give up in the face of defeat of lacking hope; admit defeat

   “In the second round, the challenger gave up”

   Synonymsdrop outfall by the waysidedrop by the waysidethrow inthrow in the towelquitchuck up the sponge
4. 4.

   put an end to a state or an activity

   “Quit teasing your little brother”

   Synonymsdiscontinuestopceasequitlay off

   Narrowerdropleave offsign offretirepull the plugshut offcheesecall it quitsbreak
5. 5.

   give up what is not strictly needed

   “he asked if they could spare one of their horses to speed his journey”

   Synonymssparepart withdispense with

   Broadergive
6. 6.

   part with a possession or right

   “I am relinquishing my bedroom to the long-term house guest”

   “resign a claim to the throne”

   Synonymsreleaserelinquishresignfree

   Broaderpass

   Narrowerderequisitionsacrifice
7. 7.

   leave (a job, post, or position) voluntarily

   “She vacated the position when she got pregnant”

   “The chairman resigned when he was found to have misappropriated funds”

   Synonymsvacateresignrenounce

   Broaderleave office

   Narrowerabdicate
8. 8.

   relinquish possession or control over

   “The squatters had to surrender the building after the police moved in”

   Synonymssurrendercededeliver

   Broadergive

   Narroweryield upsellsign away
9. 9.

   give up or agree to forgo to the power or possession of another

   “The last Taleban fighters finally surrendered”

   Synonymssurrender

   Broaderyield

   Narrowerabnegateconcedecapitulate
10. 10.

    stop maintaining or insisting on; of ideas or claims

    “He abandoned the thought of asking for her hand in marriage”

    “Both sides have to give up some claims in these negotiations”

    Synonymsabandon

    Narrowersell out
11. 11.

    allow the other (baseball) team to score

    “give up a run”

    Synonymsallow
12. 12.

    stop consuming

    “kick a habit”

    “give up alcohol”

    Synonymskick

    Broaderwaive

Questions about give up

What does give up mean?

give up means "lose (s.th.) or lose the right to (s.th.) by some error, offense, or crime". That is the primary sense; the word has 12 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for give up?

Close synonyms include forfeit, throw overboard, waive, forgo, forego. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is give up a common word?

give up is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.