Phrasal Verbs
to stop trying to do something They gave up without a fight. She doesn't give up easily. I give up—tell me the answer. Oxford Collocations DictionaryGive up is used with these nouns as the object: ambition, attempt, authority, … See full entry See related entries: Addiction
- 1(also give up on somebody especially in North American English) to believe that somebody is never going to arrive, get better, be found, etc. There you are at last! We'd given you up. We hadn't heard from him for so long, we'd given him up for dead.
- 2to stop having a relationship with somebody Why don't you give him up?
- 1 [no passive] to stop doing or having something She didn't give up work when she had the baby. We'd given up hope of ever having children. give up doing something You ought to give up smoking. Verbs usually followed by -ing forms
- 2to spend time on a task that you would normally spend on something else I gave up my weekend to help him paint his apartment.
to hand something over to somebody else We had to give our passports up to the authorities. He gave up his seat to a pregnant woman (= stood up to allow her to sit down).
to offer yourself/somebody to be captured After a week on the run he gave himself up to the police.
