Word.ws English Dictionary

given up the ghost

given up the ghost is the past participle of give up the ghost.

Meaning of give up the ghost

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To cease clinging to life; to die.
    • And Ieſus cryed with a loude voice, and gaue vp the ghoſt.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 15:37
    Synonyms:
    yield up the ghost, yield the ghost, assume room temperature, auger in, be called home, be gathered to one's fathers, be like the the One, be no more, be with Jesus, be with the Lord
  2. (figuratively, idiomatic, intransitive) To quit; to cease functioning.
    • My old computer finally gave up the ghost the other day.
  3. (intransitive) To cede a commitment to or identification with.
    • But McCartney, 50, is hardly ready to give up the ghost of his creative past.1993 February 8, “A Magical History Tour”, in Time

Questions about given up the ghost

What is given up the ghost the past participle of?
Given up the ghost is the past participle of give up the ghost.

Words near given up the ghost in the dictionary

  1. given two fucks
  2. given two shits
  3. given two squirts
  4. given two squirts of piss
  5. given up
  6. given up the ghost
  7. given vent to
  8. given voice
  9. given way
  10. given weight
  11. given what for

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: given up the ghost (page history and authors); give up the ghost (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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