Word.ws English Dictionary

give

/ˈɡɪv/

give verb: to transfer one's possession or holding of (something) to (someone). Also the alternative form of gyve.

Verb

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

  1. (ditransitive) To transfer one's possession or holding of (something) to (someone).
    • I gave him my coat.
    • I gave my coat to the beggar.
    Antonyms:
    get, obtain, receive, take
  2. (ditransitive) To make a present or gift of.
    • I'm going to give my wife a necklace for her birthday.
    • She gave a pair of shoes to her husband for their anniversary.
  3. (ditransitive) To pledge.
    • I gave him my word that I'd protect his children.
  4. (ditransitive) To provide (something) to (someone), to allow or afford.
    • I gave them permission to miss tomorrow's class.
    • Please give me some more time.
  5. (ditransitive) To cause (a sensation or feeling) to exist in (the specified person, or the target, audience, etc.).
    • It gives me a lot of pleasure to be here tonight.
    • The fence gave me an electric shock.
  6. (ditransitive, slang, transitive) To give off (a certain vibe or appearance). (Compare giving.)
    • it's giving old Hollywood (vibes)
    • Stop texting me! It's giving "desperate", honestly.
  7. (ditransitive) To carry out (a physical interaction) with (something).
    • 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.
  8. (ditransitive) To pass (something) into (someone's hand, etc.).
    • Give me your hand.
    • On entering the house, he gave his coat to the doorman.
  9. (ditransitive) To cause (a disease or condition) in, or to transmit (a disease or condition) to.
    • My boyfriend gave me chlamydia.
    • He was convinced that it was his alcoholism that gave him cancer.
  10. (ditransitive) To provide or administer (a medication).
    • The doctors gave me morphine for the pain.
  11. (ditransitive) To present someone to an audience.
    • Playing for us tonight, I give you The Beatles!
    • 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
  12. (ditransitive) To propose someone for a toast, used in standard formulations for toasts.
    • On this happy evening, I give you the bride and groom!
    • "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
Show 16 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (transitive) To provide, as, a service or a broadcast.
    • They're giving my favorite show!
    • 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
  2. (ditransitive) To estimate or predict (a duration or probability) for (something).
    • I give it ten minutes before he gives up.
    • I'd give it a 95% chance of success.
  3. (intransitive) To yield or collapse under pressure or force.
    • One pillar gave, then more, and suddenly the whole floor pancaked onto the floor below.
    • 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
  4. (intransitive) To lead (onto or into).
    • The master bedroom gives onto a spacious balcony.
    • 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
  5. (dated, transitive) To provide a view of.
    • His window gave the park.
    • 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
  6. 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.
  7. 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]...
  8. 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
  9. 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.
    • 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...
    Synonyms:
    allow, concede, grant
  10. 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
  11. 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.
  12. (dated) To grant power, permission, destiny, etc. (especially to a person); to allot; to allow.
    • 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
    • once again
      'Tis given me to behold my friend.1700, Nicholas Rowe, The Ambitious Stepmother, page 13
  13. (reflexive) To devote or apply (oneself).
    • The soldiers give themselves to plunder.
    • That boy is given to fits of bad temper.
  14. (obsolete) To become soft or moist.
    • Some moyst weather hath‥caused the powder to give and danke.1590, John Smyth, A Discourse […] concerning […] weapons
  15. (obsolete) To 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...
  16. (obsolete) To 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

Noun

give (uncountable)

  1. The 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.
    • There is no give in his dogmatic religious beliefs.

Also used as

give is also the alternative form of gyve.

give meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

give in Hindi

transfer the possession of something to someone else
देना denā

give in Tamil

transfer the possession of something to someone else
கொடு koṭu, தா tā

give in Marathi

transfer the possession of something to someone else
देणे deṇe

give in Urdu

transfer the possession of something to someone else
دینا denā
More languagesFewer languages
give in Bengali
দেওয়া deōẇa
give in Malayalam
നൽകുക nalkuka, കൊടുക്കുക koṭukkuka, തരുക taruka
give in Kannada
ಕೊಡು koḍu
give in Odia
ଦେବା debā
give in Sanskrit
ददाति dadāti, यच्छति yacchati
give in Sinhala
දෙනවා denawā
give in Assamese
দে de
give in Pashto
ورکول warkawël
give in Tagalog
magbigáy
give in Arabic
أَعْطَى ʔaʕṭā, وَهَبَ wahaba, مَنَحَ manaḥa, آتَى ʔātā
give in Malay
memberi, memberikan, beri, bagi
give in Indonesian
beri, memberi, memberikan
give in Persian
دَادَن dādan, دادَن dâdan
give in Thai
ให้ hâi, มอบให้ mɔ̂ɔp-hâi
give in Vietnamese
cho
give in Myanmar
ပေး pe:
Sindhi
ڏِئَڻُ ḍiyanu
Kashmiri
دیُٛن d'un

Examples of give in a sentence

  • My mother-in-law gives me nothing but grief.
  • I'd like to give the tire a kick.
  • I'll give their marriage six months.
  • 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:
  • 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...
  • 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...

All 40 example sentences with give

Synonyms of give

24 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of give

Forms of give

Verb
third-person singular presentgives
present participlegiving
pastgave
past participlegiven
alternative formgiv
second-person singular present (archaic)givest
second-person singular past (archaic)gavest
third-person singular present (archaic)giveth
alternative West-Country (obsolete)yive
Noun
pluralgives

Past tense of give: gave

Origin of give

From Middle English given, yeven, yiven, ȝiven, from merger of Old English ġefan, ġeofan, ġiefan, ġifan, ġiofan, ġyfan (“to give”) and Old Norse gefa (“to give”), from Proto-Germanic *gebaną (“to give”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰebʰ- (“to give; to take”). Displaced yive, from Middle English yiven, of the same origin, from influence of Old Norse gefa. Cognates Cognate with Yola gee, ye, yie, yive (“to give”), Scots gie (“to give”), North Frisian gjiuwe, iiv, jiiw, jiw, jeewe (“to give”), West Frisian jaan (“to give”), Alemannic German gë (“to give”), Bavarian gebn (“to give”), Central Franconian jevve (“to give”), Cimbrian gem, ghèban (“to give”), Dutch geven (“to give”), German geben (“to give”), Luxembourgish ginn (“to give”), Vilamovian gaon (“to give”), Yiddish געבן (gebn, “to give”), Danish give (“to give”), Elfdalian djävå (“to give”), Faroese geva (“to give”), Icelandic gefa (“to give”), Norwegian Bokmål gi (“to give”), Norwegian Nynorsk gi, giva, gje, gjeva, gjeve (“to give”), Swedish ge, gifva, giva (“to give”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (giban, “to give”); also Greek κεφάλι (kefáli), κεφαλή (kefalí, “head”), Lithuanian gobti (“cover up; to grab, snatch”), Polish gabać (“to touch...

Words formed from give

Phrases with give

144 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with give

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about give

What does give mean?
Give means to transfer one's possession or holding of (something) to (someone).
What is give in Hindi?
Give in Hindi is देना (denā). See Give meaning in Hindi.
How do you use give in a sentence?
My mother-in-law gives me nothing but grief.
What part of speech is give?
Give can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce give?
Give is pronounced /ˈɡɪv/.
What is the past tense of give?
The past tense of give is gave.

Words near give in the dictionary

  1. giv'n
  2. giv'st
  3. givable
  4. Givan
  5. Givans
  6. give
  7. give 110%
  8. give a bad name
  9. give a bugger
  10. give a crap
  11. give a damn

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: give (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-give.ogg, En-uk-to give.ogg.

Cite this entry: “give.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/give. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.