The Phrasal Verb 'Give In' Explained
- Phrasal Verbs Explained
- Jul 18
- 9 min read
Updated: Aug 2
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'give in' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them.
In this post, we are exploring a very useful phrasal verb: 'give in'. Although this is not one of the most common phrasal verbs that you are likely to come across in English conversations, it is definitely one that is in widespread use among native speakers. Furthermore, it is a great one to have in your active vocabulary as it is functions as a synonym for many other verbs and can therefore help to make your English more fluent. In this post, I will explain the different ways to use it and give you lots of examples in context for each application. So, without further ado, let's make a start....
TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one)
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THE BASICS
GIVE IN: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 4 |
Past tense forms | Gave in / Given in |
Separable? | Sometimes |
I'm guessing that you are here to learn the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'give in' but do you know what the individual words 'give' and 'in' can bring to phrasal verbs? As a first step in our exploration of 'give in', let's consider this....
'To give' is a commonly used verb in English, whose primary meaning is to transfer the ownership of something to another person for free. For example, if I give you a present, I offer it to you to keep and don't expect anything from you in return. It is not just used for physical objects however and 'to give' can also be used with nouns like infectious diseases compliments and looks. There are also some other meanings of 'to give' that are rarer; one of these that is particularly useful for the phrasal verb 'give in' is to bend or break when it is under pressure....we will come back to this idea several times during this post.
My parents gave me a new car for my birthday.
Arthur the cat likes to give his owners mice as presents.
Who gave you that pen? It is mine!
This loud music is giving me a headache.
My daughter gave me a cold.
Susan's boss always never gives her compliments on her work.
The prepositional particle 'in' needs no introduction as it is one of the most common words in the English language. When used in phrasal verbs, it can add the idea of a movement towards the interior of something (get in, run in). In addition to this, it can also add ideas like involvement (join in) and containment (box in), among others.
So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the real reason that you are here and look at the meanings of the phrasal verb 'give in'....
MEANING 1: To submit something
CEFR Language Level | B1 - Intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | British English |
Potential synonyms | To submit, to hand in, to turn in |
Separable? | Yes |
We are going to start the meanings of 'give in' with a British English usage that is the closest one that we have to a literal meaning and that is 'to submit something'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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You can see from the list above that many of the nouns that are regularly used with this application are for documents or pieces of writing that are submitted to someone in authority e.g. a manager or a teacher. Typically, when you give one of these in, it is so that the authority figure can read it, correct it or act upon it in some way.
If you are more familiar with American English, then perhaps you know the phrasal verb synonyms 'hand in' or 'turn in', which both mean the same thing. You should note that we also use 'hand in' quite a lot in British English too. |
Common examples of where you may hear this application are to give in your resignation when you decide to stop working for a company, to give in your homework to your teacher and to give in your CV (resume) to a company when you are applying for a job.
This is a separable application, so you can put the direct object both between 'give' and 'in' or after them, without changing the meaning.
The students were asked to give in their essays by Friday at the latest.
Please give your application in at the front desk.
Don't forget to give in your report well before the meeting starts.
Luke gave his resignation letter in this morning.
You must give in all your documents before the deadline.
She gave in her homework late and lost marks.
All candidates must give in their CVs by the end of the week.
Have you given in your project proposal yet?
Lastly, we sometimes also use the expression 'to give oneself in' to describe when a criminal surrenders to the police or an authority. It is much more common to use the phrasal verb synonym 'give oneself up' here but 'give in' is also fine to use to express this action.
After 5 days of hiding from the police, Harry turned up at his local police station and have himself in.
Do you think that the criminals would give themselves in if we promised not to send them to prison?
MEANING 2: To do what someone asks against your will
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To yield, to acquiesce |
Separable? | No |
Let's move on to our second meaning of 'give in' now, which I would say is the most common one and means 'to do what someone asks against your will'.
Let me explain this one further: this is just not doing something immediately when someone asks you but rather when you don't want to do something and you are persuaded to do it. In other words, you say no to a request for a period of time before finally accepting to do it. This is usually after being asked several times with a period of persuasion.
To give you some context, when I was a child, I had a good friend (who is still a good friend) whose grandmother had a swimming pool in her garden. I remember many times on a sunny summer's day my friend asking (and sometimes begging) her grandmother to let us use the pool. She always said "no" at first but then later gave in and allowed us to use the pool. In fact, last week when it was very hot, my friend messaged me about how we used to annoy her grandma on hot days about using her pool and how in the end she always gave in.
If you think back to the Basics section earlier in the post, you may remember that one of the rarer meanings of the verb 'to give' is to bend or break under pressure and this is exactly what is happening here; the questions and the persuasion form the pressure and the other person's will is what breaks or bends.
Lastly, this application isn't only used for singular people and can also be used for groups of people, organisations and governments.
After hours of begging, Pete finally gave in and let his kids have ice cream.
Sue didn’t want to go to the party at first, but she gave in to peer pressure.
I kept saying no, but eventually I gave in and said yes.
The shopkeeper refused to lower the price, but gave in after we threatened to walk away.
The government gave in to public demand and cancelled the project.
Sam gave in to his daughter’s request for a puppy.
At first, Louise resisted the idea, but she gave in after hearing everyone's support.
The toddler cried until his parents gave in and let him stay up late.
BONUS: To give in to temptation
Before we end this section, I wanted to make you aware of a commonly used expression: 'to give in to temptation'.
As human beings, we all want things; it is a part of being human. Sometimes the things that want to have or do are not good for us or are not what we should be doing and we feel an inner conflict going on between what our hearts wants and our what our head tells us we should not. Sometimes, people can resist these temptations but other times they cannot. On those occasions when we are no longer able to resist the desire to do something, we can say that we give in to temptation.
For example, if you are on a diet because you want to lose weight and someone offers you some chocolate, you would be giving in to temptation if you accepted the chocolate as this would not help you to lose weight.
Some drivers cannot resist the temptation to look at their cellphones whilst driving.
Despite Kath's strong will, she gave in to temptation and bought the expensive shoes.
MEANING 3: To accept defeat
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To give up, to yield |
Separable? | No |
Now for our third meaning of 'give in', which is a natural progression from the second one and means 'to accept defeat'.
This application is heard a lot in reference to situations in which there is a degree of opposition or competition between two people, groups or sides. As such, you may well hear this being used to refer to sports, warfare and court cases, where one side is trying to defeat the other. We typically use 'give in' in these contexts when one of the sides or competitors decides that they cannot win and therefore admits defeat and stops trying to compete.
Like with the previous example, we again have the idea of bending or breaking when the losing party realises that it is not strong enough to deal with the pressure coming from the opposition.
The army gave in after suffering heavy losses and running out of supplies.
Despite his best efforts, the chess champion finally gave in to his opponent's relentless strategy.
Realising they were outmatched, the team gave in and walked off the field.
After a long legal battle, the company gave in and dropped the lawsuit.
Robert refused to give in during the competition, but exhaustion eventually forced him to admit defeat.
The rebels held their ground for weeks before finally giving in to government forces.
Cornered and overwhelmed, the general had no choice but to give in.
The soldiers fought bravely, but they gave in when reinforcements never arrived.
MEANING 4: To collapse
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Rare |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To collapse, to cave in, to give way |
Separable? | No |
Lastly, we have our fourth meaning of 'give in', which is 'to collapse' and is probably quite obvious when you consider the previous couple of meanings that we have looked at.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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For this application, we are specifically concerned with manmade structures that are usually built to support or hold things in place.
If one of these structures 'gives in', its structure becomes so weak that it can no longer support itself or anything on top of it and it falls towards the ground. This may be the result of too much force being put on it or it may just be that it loses its strength over a long period of time. As with the other applications, we are again thinking about the meaning that the verb 'to give' has of breaking under pressure.
This usage is quite rare in spoken English and you are more likely to hear the synonyms 'collapse', 'cave in' and 'give way' being used by native speakers here but it is worth knowing it all the same!
The old wooden bridge gave in under the weight of the lorry.
After several days of heavy rain, the dam finally gave in, flooding the entire valley.
The roof gave in during the hurricane, trapping the residents inside.
The floor gave in beneath their feet, sending them crashing into the cellar.
The tunnel gave in after the earthquake, blocking the path of the rescue team.
The wall gave in during the storm after repeated battering by the huge waves.
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'give in'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'give in'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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THE END