give

present singular third person gives · participle present giving · past gave · participle past given · first person past singular gave · archaic present second person singular givest · past second person singular gave · archaic past second person singular gavest · present singular third person gives · archaic present singular third person giveth · past singular third person gave · past plural gave · past subjunctive gave · participle present giving · participle past given · alternative giv

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

      I gave him my coat.

      2 more examples

      I gave my coat to the beggar.

      When they asked, I gave my coat.

      Antonyms: get, obtain, receive, take

   2. ditransitiveTo make a present or gift of.

      I'm going to give my wife a necklace for her birthday.

      1 more example

      She gave a pair of shoes to her husband for their anniversary.

   3. ditransitiveTo pledge.

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

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

      Please give me some more time.

      1 more example

      I gave them permission to miss tomorrow's class.

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

      The fence gave me an electric shock.

      5 more examples

      It gives me a lot of pleasure to be here tonight.

      My mother-in-law gives me nothing but grief.

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

      The slow flutter of his vibrato gives a melancholy tinge to the proceedings.

      2014, Donna Soto-Morettini, Popular Singing and Style, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 221

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

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

   6. ditransitiveslangtransitiveTo give off (a certain vibe or appearance). (Compare giving.)First known use 2019?–

      it's giving old Hollywood (vibes)

      5 more examples

      Stop texting me! It's giving "desperate", honestly.

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

      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)

      It's giving old Hollywood

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

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

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

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

   7. ditransitiveTo carry out (a physical interaction) with (something).

      I'd like to give the tire a kick.

      5 more examples

      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 gave the boy a push on the swing.

      She gave me a wink afterwards, so I knew she was joking.

      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,[…].

      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

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

      Give me your hand.

      1 more example

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

   9. ditransitiveTo cause (a disease or condition) in, or to transmit (a disease or condition) to.

      My boyfriend gave me chlamydia.

      2 more examples

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

      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.

      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

   10. ditransitiveTo provide or administer (a medication).

       The doctors gave me morphine for the pain.

   11. ditransitiveTo present someone to an audience.

       Playing for us tonight, I give you The Beatles!

       2 more examples

       Ladies and gentlemen of Rotary, I give you our president, Bill Robbins.

       1975, I.W. Parrish, Sixty-Sixth Annual Convention of Rotary International, Rotary International, page 54

       "Ladies and gentlemen... I give you... 'The Beatles'!..." announced Ed Sullivan above the screaming fans.

       2008 September 8, Stuart P. Coates, Norma Jeane's Wishes in Time: (A Four Part Adventure), iUniverse, →ISBN, page 30

   12. ditransitiveTo propose someone for a toast, used in standard formulations for toasts.

       On this happy evening, I give you the bride and groom!

       3 more examples

       "I give you the bride: the new Baroness of Kilshane. May her life with her bold new baron be long and happy and fruitful." He lifted his cup. "To the bride!"

       2001 July 1, Katherine Kurtz, King Kelson's Bride, Penguin, →ISBN, page 19

       CORTEZ (raising whiskey glass) I give you President Lyndon Johnson. ONO: You can keep him. (They all knock back the whiskey, slam down the glasses. SAM pours again.)

       2008, Chris Dickerson, Deadline, Original Works Publishing, →ISBN, page 22

       "Sir Thomas," Malone said, "I give you Her Majesty, the Queen!" "To the Queen!" Boyd echoed. They downed their drinks and turned, as one man, to hurl the glasses into the wastebasket.

       2014 June 13, Gordon Randall Garrett, Supermind, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN

2. transitiveTo provide, as, a service or a broadcast.

   They're giving my favorite show!

   5 more examples

   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 […]

   1993, Business Law Today

   […]who did not have a culture in which 'giving good presentation' and successfully playing the internal political game was the way up.

   2003, Iain Aitken, Value-Driven IT Management: Commercializing the IT Function, page 153

   A friendly voice on the phone welcoming prospective new clients is a must. Don't underestimate the importance of giving good "phone".

   2006, Christopher Matthew Spencer, The Ebay Entrepreneur, page 248

   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.

   2012 January 1, George Zinkan, Advertising Research: The Internet, Consumer Behavior, and Strategy, Marketing Classics Press, →ISBN, page 28

   He gives good face too, posing for the camera with hands on waist, eyes forward, legs crossed (Fig. 4.1).

   2016 November 25, Gabrielle Jamela Hosein, Lisa Outar, Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought: Genealogies, Theories, Enactments, Springer, →ISBN, page 54

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

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

   2 more examples

   I give it ten minutes before he gives up.

   I'll give their marriage six months.

4. intransitiveTo yield or collapse under pressure or force.

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

   1 more example

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

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

   Synonyms: give way, bend, cede, flex, move, yield · Antonyms: resist

5. intransitiveTo lead (onto or into).

   The master bedroom gives onto a spacious balcony.

   1 more example

   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,[…]

   2022 February 3, Terry Marsh, Walking the Dales Way: Ilkley to Bowness-on-Windermere through the Yorkshire Dales, Cicerone Press Limited, →ISBN

6. datedtransitiveTo provide a view of.

   His window gave the park.

   1 more example

   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.

   2006, Pierre Lagayette, Nature et progrès: interactions, exclusions, mutations, Presses Paris Sorbonne, →ISBN, page 61

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.

   But there the duke was given to understand / That in a gondola were seen together / Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica.

   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

9. To cause (someone) to have; produce in (someone); effectuate.

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

   1997, Jim Smoke, How a Man Measures Success, page 82

10. To allow or admit by way of supposition; to concede.

    He can be bad-tempered, I'll give you that, but he's a hard worker.

    1 more example

    I give not heaven for lost.

    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

    Synonyms: allow, concede, grant

11. To attribute; to assign; to adjudge.

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

    1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, page 6

12. 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.

13. datedlifestyleTo grant power, permission, destiny, etc. (especially to a person); to allot; to allow.

    once again 'Tis given me to behold my friend.

    1700, Nicholas Rowe, The Ambitious Stepmother, page 13

    2 more examples

    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.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 12:1

    Then give thy friend to shed the sacred wine.

    1725, Homer, “Book III”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC

14. reflexiveTo devote or apply (oneself).

    The soldiers give themselves to plunder.

    1 more example

    That boy is given to fits of bad temper.

15. obsoleteTo become soft or moist.

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

    1590, John Smyth, A Discourse […] concerning […] weapons

16. obsoleteTo shed tears; to weep.

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

    c. 1605–1608 (date written), 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

17. obsoleteTo have a misgiving.

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

    c. 1608-1634, John Webster, Appius and Virginia, page 16

alternative giv · alternative West Country obsolete yive

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

   This chair doesn't have much give.

   2 more examples

   There is no give in his dogmatic religious beliefs.

   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.

   1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 13

plural gives

1. alternativeAlternative form of gyve.