Meanings
- informalApproximately; plus or minus some unknown amount.
He was six feet tall, give or take.
1 more example
Estimate Lakenheath twelve thirty hours. Give or take a few minutes, natch.
1958, Peter Bryant, Red AlertSynonyms: -ish, about, all but, almost, approaching, around, by and large, circa
- informalApproximately; within a certain margin of error.
six months, give or take a few days
1 more example
Individual episodes are still thrilling and often quite striking, give or take some pitch-black battle scenes. But the gradual ramping up of the plotting that has grown steadily in the past three seasons crossed some invisible Maginot line this year, where the formerly acceptable trade-offs of focus for fun are no longer quite so taken for granted.
2019 May 19, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 22 May 2019Synonyms: -ish, about, all but, almost, approaching, around, by and large, circa
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbApproximately; plus or minus some unknown amount.
adverbApproximately; within a certain margin of error.
Origin
First attested in c. 1958. See cite below.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish likimain, suurinpiirtein
- likimainapproximately
- suurinpiirteinapproximately
- suuntaan tai toiseenapproximately
Greek πάνω κάτω
- πάνω κάτω (páno káto)approximately
Hungarian plusz-mínusz egy/egynéhány, esetleg valamivel/valamennyivel több vagy kevesebb
- plusz-mínusz egy/egynéhányapproximately
- esetleg valamivel/valamennyivel több vagy kevesebbapproximately
Indonesian kurang lebih
- kurang lebihapproximately
Polish z grubsza, mniej więcej
- z grubszaapproximately
- mniej więcejapproximately
Portuguese mais ou menos
- mais ou menosapproximately
Spanish más o menos, plus minusve
- más o menosapproximately
- plus minusveapproximately
Cite this entry
give or take. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/give%20or%20take
“give or take.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/give%20or%20take. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “give or take,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/give%20or%20take.
Source: give or take on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.