gave

G2A1V4E1
UK, US/ɡeɪv/Canada[ɡeːv][ɡɛːv]Ireland, also/ɡɛv/

A form of give — To transfer one's possession or holding of (something) to (someone).

OriginMiddle English gaf ← Old English ġæf →
Very commonScrabble 8
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Meanings

verb
  1. pastsimple past of give

    I gaue thee Life, and rescu'd thee from Death.

    1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
    2 more examples

    The superior degree of confidence towards Harriet, which this one article marked, gave her severe pain.

    1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC

    With the Oxford canal at the bottom of his garden, regular canoeing excursions gave him enormous pleasure.

    2011 July 31, Bob Woffinden, The Guardian
  2. colloquialnonstandardparticiplepastpast participle of give

    Mr. Green. No; not to my recollection, Senator. I may have gave Frank Prince some for his wife, or something like that.

    1951, “Influence in Government Procurement”, in Hearing before the Investigations Subcommittee of the Committee of Expenditures in the Executive Departments […] , U.S. Government Printing Office, page 678
    2 more examples

    Well I suppose you will wonder what has happened to change my mind and if somebody has gave me a birthday present of $600.00 or something.

    c. 1916, Ring W. Lardner, The Courtship of T. Dorgan; republished in George W. Hilton, The Annotated Baseball Stories of Ring W. Lardner, 1914-1919, Stanford University Press, 1995, →ISBN, page 297

    I'm talking about redundancies, he said, that's what I'm talking about. And yous better get bloody used to the idea. One of the men shrugged: Ach well, we knew it was coming. That's as maybe but they should've gave us notice. Formal.

    2012 August 10, James Kelman, A Chancer, Birlinn, →ISBN, page 6

Origin

  1. Old Englishġæf
  2. Middle Englishgaf
  3. Englishgave

From Middle English gaf, yaf, ȝaf, from Old English ġæf, ġeaf.

More words from Middle English, Old English

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with gave

savedavewaveslavecavegraveWAVbravefavebehaveraveshavewaivepavecravenavestavesuaveclaveengraveMaeveenslaveknavelave
All rhymes →

Anagrams

vegaEVGA
Cite this entry
APA

gave. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gave

MLA

“gave.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gave. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gave,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gave.

Source: gave on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.