give name to

present singular third person gives name to · participle present giving name to · past gave name to · participle past given name to

1. transitiveTo express (something) in words; to identify by name.

   1977, Audre Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” in Sister Outsider, Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984, p. 36, […] it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are—until the poem—nameless and formless, about to be birthed, but already felt.

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   […] who may proceed against such Malignants where the Laws are wholy silent, and neither have given name to their fault, nor prescribed any punishment?

   1644, John Barwick, Certain Disquisitions and Considerations, Oxford, page 27

   1711, letter signed ‘T.’ in Joseph Addison and Richard Steele (eds.), The Spectator, No. 145, 16 August, 1711, in The Works of Joseph Addison, New York: Harper, 1850, Volume 1, p. 218, The skirt of your [men’s] fashionable coats forms as large a circumference as our [women’s] petticoats; as these are set out with whalebone, so are those with wire, to increase and sustain the bunch of fold that hangs down on each side; and the hat, I perceive is decreased in just proportion to the head-dresses. We [women] make a regular figure, but I defy your mathematics to give name to the form you [men] appear in.

2. transitiveTo lend one's or its name to (something); to be the source of the name of (something).

   1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, London: Ward, Lock, Introduction, p. xii, the author must now offer some notices of the individual who gives name to these volumes

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   The ensign of the Duke [of York] was a white rose, that of Henry a red. This gave name to the two houses, whose contentions were now about to drench the kingdom with slaughter.

   1764, Oliver Goldsmith, An History of England, London: J. Newbery, Volume 1, Letter 23, p. 174

   The new leaders moved their capital to Kamakura, an isolated town near present-day Tokyo, giving name to the era, the Kamakura period (1185-1333).

   1999, Marc Peter Keane, “Gardens”, in David Scott, editor, Simply Zen, London: New Holland, page 88

3. obsoletetransitiveTo give a name to (a person or animal).

   1568, The Bishops’ Bible, London, Table setting out the genealogy of Adam, And Adam gaue name to the woman, which was made of his ribbe (while he was a sleepe) and called her EVA, as he gaue name to al other creatures.

   Synonyms: name