give over
give over verb: to give up, hand over, surrender (something).
Verb
give over (third-person singular simple present gives over, present participle giving over, simple past gave over, past participle given over)
- To give up, hand over, surrender (something).
- Diocletian, the emperor, was so much affected with it that he gave over his sceptre and turned gardener.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II...
- As soon as Julia returned with a constable, Timothy, who was on the point of exhaustion, prepared to give over [the fight] to him gratefully. The newcomer turned out to be a powerful youngster, fully trained and eager to help, and he stripped off his tunic at once.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
- To entrust (something) to another.
- She gave the deeds over to the solicitor.
- To devote or resign to a particular purpose or activity; to yield completely.
- The factory has been entirely given over to aircraft manufacture.
- He gave himself over to a monastic life.
- To quit, to abandon.
- If the bodies continued missing until Sunday, all hope would be given over, and the funerals would be preached on that morning.1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, page 89
- Lord, give over this wrastling. […] Tempt not the fates by another bout.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 22
- To give up; abandon; stop.
- Give over with your nonsense, will you!
- While he was declaring the truth, a constable came in with his great staff, and bid him give over, and come down: but William Penn held on, declaring truth in the power of God.1681, George Fox, A journal or historical account of the life, travels, sufferings, […], published 1831, page 247
Examples of give over in a sentence
- Amelia, I wish you would give over with your reading and your information, it's not for ladies to be literary; people don't like it, you silly thing!1890, Mary Taylor, Janet Murray, Miss Miles: Or a Tale of Yorkshire Life 60 Years Ago, page 212:
- My mother told him to give over and let me alone, and said she was sure it would be a lovely suit, and that Aunt Jack would never buy poor material, but stuff that would last forever.1962, Brendan Behan, Brendan Behan's island: an Irish sketch-book, page 151:
- According to Homer, the rest of the Trojan army drew away from Troy pretending to retreat and give over with the siege in order to confuse the Trojans.2005, Anatoly T. Fomenko, History: Fiction Or Science?, page 245:
- Before it's too late," Sarah would chastise him. / "Och, Sarah, would you give over with your bargeing.2009, Eugene McEldowney, The Faloorie Man, page 143:
Forms of give over
| third-person singular present | gives over |
|---|---|
| present participle | giving over |
| past | gave over |
| past participle | given over |
Questions about give over
- What does give over mean?
- Give over means to give up, hand over, surrender (something).
- How do you use give over in a sentence?
- Amelia, I wish you would give over with your reading and your information, it's not for ladies to be literary; people don't like it, you silly thing!
- What part of speech is give over?
- Give over is a verb.
- What is the past tense of give over?
- The past tense of give over is gave over.
Words near give over in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: give over (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.
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Cite this entry: “give over.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/give_over. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.