Definition of "give"

give¹

/ɡɪv/

verb
third-person singular simple present gives, present participle giving, simple past gave, past participle given
1. (ditransitive) To move, shift, provide something abstract or concrete to someone or something or somewhere.
  1. To transfer one's possession or holding of (something) to (someone).
  2. To make a present or gift of.
  3. To pledge.
  4. To provide (something) to (someone), to allow or afford.
  5. To cause (a sensation or feeling) to exist in (the specified person, or the target, audience, etc).
    Quotations
    [subtitle:] It's giving Wednesday Addams at the salon...
    2022 October 25, Medina Azaldin, ELLE Beauty Team, “30 Halloween Nail Art Trends To Get You In The Mood For Trick Or Treat”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)
    "The outfit is giving me eighties fitness video vibes, but you wear it well."
    2023 February 21, Lakita Wilson, Last Chance Dance, Penguin, page 81
  6. To carry out (a physical interaction) with (something).
    Quotations
    Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. 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; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., page 68
  7. To pass (something) into (someone's hand, etc.).
  8. To cause (a disease or condition) in, or to transmit (a disease or condition) to.
    Quotations
    Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
    a. 1700, William Temple, “Heads, Designed for an Essay on Conversation”, in Miscellanea. The Third Part. [...], London: […] Jonathan Swift, […] Benjamin Tooke, […], published 1701, page 331
  9. To provide or administer (a medication)
2. (transitive) To provide, as, a service or a broadcast.
  Quotations
  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
  […] who did not have a culture in which 'giving good presentation' and successfully playing the internal political game was the way up.
  2003, Iain Aitken, Value-Driven IT Management: Commercializing the IT Function, page 153
  A friendly voice on the phone welcoming prospective new clients is a must. Don't underestimate the importance of giving good "phone".
  2006, Christopher Matthew Spencer, The Ebay Entrepreneur, page 248
  Social skills are required to meet new people in a chat room and maintain contact over time (“Do you give good e-mail?”). The Internet provides people with an opportunity to reinvent or misrepresent themselves.
  2012 January 1, George Zinkan, Advertising Research: The Internet, Consumer Behavior, and Strategy, Marketing Classics Press, page 28
  He gives good face too, posing for the camera with hands on waist, eyes forward, legs crossed (Fig. 4.1).
  2016 November 25, Gabrielle Jamela Hosein, Lisa Outar, Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought: Genealogies, Theories, Enactments, Springer, page 54
3. (ditransitive) To estimate or predict (a duration or probability) for (something).
4. (intransitive) To yield or collapse under pressure or force.
  Quotations
  A soldier noticed how earth "gave" as he walked over the shallow trenches.
  1992, Garry Wills, “prologue”, in Lincoln at Gettysburg, page 21
5. (intransitive) To lead (onto or into).
  Quotations
  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
6. (transitive, dated) To provide a view of.
  Quotations
  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, page 61
7. To exhibit as a product or result; to produce; to yield.
8. To cause; to make; used with the infinitive.
  Quotations
  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] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene viii], page 171
9. To cause (someone) to have; produce in (someone); effectuate.
  Quotations
  "Can do" gives me a choice, while "should do" gives me a complex.
  1997, Jim Smoke, How a Man Measures Success, page 82
10. To allow or admit by way of supposition; to concede.
  Quotations
  I give not heaven for lost.
  1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
11. To attribute; to assign; to adjudge.
  Quotations
  I don't wonder at people giving him to me for a lover.
  1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, page 6
12. To communicate or announce (advice, tidings, etc.); to pronounce or utter (an opinion, a judgment, a shout, etc.).
13. (dated or religion) To grant power, permission, destiny, etc. (especially to a person); to allot; to allow.
  Quotations
  These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the Lᴏʀᴅ 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, […], Deuteronomy 12:1
  once again'Tis given me to behold my friend.
  1700, Nicholas Rowe, The Ambitious Stepmother, page 13
  Then give thy friend to shed the sacred wine.
  1725, Homer, “Book III”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot
14. (reflexive) To devote or apply (oneself).
15. (obsolete) To become soft or moist.
  Quotations
  Some moyst weather hath‥caused the powder to give and danke.
  1590, John Smyth, A Discourse […] concerning […] weapons
16. (obsolete) To shed tears; to weep.
  Quotations
  Whose eyes do never give / But through lust and laughter.
  c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii], page 94
17. (obsolete) To have a misgiving.
  Quotations
  My mind gives ye're reserv'd / To rob poor market women.
  c. 1608-1634, John Webster, Appius and Virginia, page 16
18. (slang, transitive) To give off (a certain vibe or appearance).
  Quotations
  It's giving old Hollywood
  2023 May 30, Sophie Williams, “Kylie Jenner is giving Marilyn Monroe vibes in her latest Instagram post”, in Cosmopolitan‎, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Communications, archived from the original on 10 September 2023
  Your outfit is giving more romance than bloodshed. Are you currently in love?
  2023 June 12, Wilson Wong, “Gov Ball Raves on in Pink, Amid Rain and Smoke”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, archived from the original on 12 June 2023
  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 Refinery29‎, archived from the original on 10 September 2023
19. (slang, intransitive) To exceed expectations.
  Quotations
  There were lots of statement nail moments at the 2022 MTV VMA‘s, and Latto‘s metallic french tip manicure was one of them.
  2022 August 29, Stixx M, “Latto's French Chrome Manicure Was "Giving" at the MTV VMAs”, in Hypebae‎
  Next, the TikTok user showed her followers the $15 solid scoop neck tank dress in mocha brown. / "This one is giving. I love this, this is so cute. I think my body shape looks really cute in it," she told her followers.
  2022 October 30, Roisin Chapman, “I’m mid-size – my Shein haul included multiple dupes of Kim Kardashian’s Skims with prices from $13”, in The Sun‎
  The fashion influencer also posts content showing off her corporate looks, demonstrating how she can be professional and stylish. / In the comments, people seemed less concerned with her outfit than her hair styling. / "Okay but the fringe is giving," wrote one person.
  2023 January 26, Roisin Chapman, “Trolls tell me my work skirts are ‘too short’ for the office – but my boss doesn’t care, so I don’t know why they do”, in The Irish Sun‎
noun
uncountable
1. The amount of bending that something undergoes when a force is applied to it; a tendency to yield under pressure; resilience.
  Quotations
  The striker's job was onerous, too, because there was so little "give" in the metal, and the perpetual jarring was indeed trying to the muscles.
  1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 13

give²

noun
plural gives
1. Alternative form of gyve

Definition of "give"

give1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

noun

Quotations

give2

noun

give¹

give²