gave the word

Verb

give the word (third-person singular simple present gives the word, present participle giving the word, simple past gave the word, past participle given the word)

1. To communicate or signal to another that an action or event is allowed to commence or should be commenced, usually but not necessarily by linguistic communication.
   • We can't start the project until the boss has given us the word.

   Synonyms:

   say the word