The Phrasal Verb 'Give Up' Explained
- Phrasal Verbs Explained
- Apr 28, 2023
- 11 min read
Updated: Feb 2
A detailed explanation of the English phrasal verb 'give up', with examples and exercises.
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.
This is a post about the super common phrasal verb 'give up'. I imagine that many of you will already be familiar with this phrasal verb from its links with stopping smoking etc, however there is a lot more to it than that. In this post, I will guide you through its different meanings and provide you with lots of different examples to aid your understanding and learning. So, without further ado, let's make a start.
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GIVE UP: KEY INFORMATION For more explanation of the terms in the tables, click here
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 5 |
Separable? | Yes |
Past tense forms | Gave up / Given up |
MEANINGS (click to jump to each one)
THE BASICS
As per usual in each post on Phrasal Verbs Explained, we'll start by looking at the individual words that make up the phrasal verb 'give up'.
Firstly, we have the common verb 'to give', which means to freely or willingly offer or provide something to someone. Implicit in the meaning of the verb 'to give' is that the person who gives no longer has something or is without something once the action is complete. This is an idea that will recur in the idiomatic meanings that we will look at in this post, so it is worth remembering this.
My fiancé gave me a diamond ring and asked me to marry him.
No, I don't have your key. I gave it to you.
Secondly, we have the prepositional particle 'up', which primarily means a movement in the direction away from the ground or towards a higher position. When used in phrasal verbs, 'up' can also carry abstract meanings such as completion, readiness and improvement, among other things.
So, now that we have considered the word themselves, let's dive into the figurative meanings of the phrasal verb 'give up'...
MEANING 1: To surrender something
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper Intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
British or American? | Both |
Potential synonyms | To relinquish, to renounce, to cede, to hand over, to sign away, to part with |
Separable? | Yes |
Normally on this blog, I like to start by considering the literal meaning of the combination of the two words (if one exists). As you can imagine though, the combination of the meanings of the words 'give' and 'up' does not really provide us with a very concrete meaning that is applicable to our daily lives in the modern world. However, if we take a look into the past, then the literal meaning of 'give up' becomes much clearer....
Let's go back in time to the Middle Ages and consider the life of a typical farmer in Northern Europe. At this time, a strict social hierarchy existed, with three social classes: the upper class or nobles at the top, the middle class with doctors and merchants etc in the middle and the lower class or peasants at the bottom. This latter class is the one in which a farmer would have fallen into. Work on the farms was very tough and farmers worked long hours all year to grow crops until harvest time, when they had to surrender a large proportion of their hard earned produce to the landowners. In other words, they had to GIVE the crops to the higher classes, which in the social hierarchy, is very much in the direction UP and this is potentially how the phrasal verb 'give up' came to mean 'to surrender something'.
If we fast forward back to the present day, we no longer use 'give up' to talk about surrendering something to a higher power, but rather when we decide to surrender something in general. In other words, we decide that we do not want to (or cannot) own something anymore and therefore make it available for other people, regardless of their position in the social hierarchy.
This meaning is often (but not always) used when we give something up against our will i.e. when we do not want to part with it but we must for some reason. Often, the nouns that we use with this application of 'give up' are for things that are very important to us, such as houses, jobs and even children. For this reason, it can often convey a negative and strong feeling.
I had to give up my house when I lost my job as I could no longer afford the mortgage repayments.
Janet was only 15 years old when she fell pregnant and had to give her baby up as she was not in a position to be able to care for it.
When we moved into our new apartment there was a no pets police, so sadly we had to give our cats up.
Helen gave up her job to look after her sick mother.
It is worth remembering that the focus of this usage is not that we are giving something to another person (in the sense of the verb 'to give'), but rather the idea that we no longer have something because we surrendered it or let somebody else have it.
Another noteworthy noun that is often used with this application of 'give up' is 'time'. People say that they give up their time when they agree to either spend it doing something for another person or doing something they do not want to do.
I choose to give up my time at weekends to help out at my church.
Sarah gave up her Saturday mornings to teach her friend's son French.
On a grammatical note, it is very common for native speakers to use 'give up' separably in this context, however it should be noted that there is no change in meaning if used separably or inseparably; it is purely personal choice.
Have you ever had to give up anything against your will? Tell me in the comments here.
MEANING 2: To stop doing something Photo: Pexels
CEFR Language Level | B1 - Intermediate |
Usage | Common |
British or American? | Both |
Potential synonyms | To stop, to quit, to cut out, to forgo, to eschew |
Separable? | Yes |
Nouns used commonly with | Smoking, eating meat, drinking alcohol |
In the previous section, I explained how 'give up' can mean 'to stop owning or having something' and for this second usage, we will continue with this theme of stopping. This next meaning of 'give up' is probably the most commonly used by native speakers and it is 'to stop doing something that you regularly do in your life i.e. a habit'. This is often a permanent stop, but can equally refer to a temporary pause of a habit for a limited period of time.
This application of 'give up' is perhaps most commonly used when someone stops smoking (they give up smoking), but you are also likely to hear it with regard to stopping other long-term habits, for example when a person becomes vegetarian (they give up eating meat) or decides to stop drinking alcohol (they give up drinking).
I've been trying to give up smoking for 3 months but I've not succeeded yet.
The doctor told me I need to give up drinking alcohol.
John gave up eating bread and lost a lot of weight.
You may have noticed in the examples above that this usage of 'give up' is followed by a gerund, so make sure you avoid using the infinitive 'to' here as this is incorrect.
An alternative to the gerund is to use the noun of the action that you are 'giving up' e.g. "I am giving up meat" or "I am giving up cigarettes".
I gave up meat and dairy products and became vegan a while back but I really miss cheese.
My mum had to give up her job in order to care for my elderly grandparents.
BONUS INFORMATION Staying on the subject of giving up a job or a career, we use the expression "don't give up your day job" when we want to say to someone that they are not very good at something in a humorous way. This is normally used to criticise someone in a friendly, joking manner and not normally said to cause offence. Check out the video below to hear it in use! |
Have you given up anything recently? Let me know in the comments section here.
MEANING 3: To stop trying to do something
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper Intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
British or American? | Both |
Potential synonyms | To stop trying, to lose heart, to call it a day |
Separable? | No |
As you will all know, learning a language can be difficult and many people who start learning with the best of intentions decide to stop learning once they realise how hard it is, or in other words they give it up. That is because the third meaning of 'give up' that we will look at in this post is 'to stop trying to do something'....that's right, another meaning involving the idea of stopping something.
To further illustrate this, here is another example for you: Imagine that your car breaks down and instead of calling a mechanic to repair it, you decide that you will repair it yourself. After looking at the engine for an hour to try and understand what the problem is, you decide that you cannot do it and call the mechanic. In other words, you gave up trying to fix the problem.
The example above is typical of how this usage of 'give up' is used in everyday English, especially because we often use it when we give up trying to do something because we do not think that we can do it. This can often be when we are trying something new or learning how to do something and we find it too difficult, so we give it up. Moreover, another time that this is used is when we are doing something and it becomes difficult due to unforeseen problems or issues.
I started learning Turkish last month but I gave up when I realised how difficult it was!
Despite encountering many problems, my Mum didn't give up trying to build her business and it is now doing really well.
My cat is really disobedient. I tried to teach him to follow basic commands but he completely ignored me and in the end I gave up trying.
Lucy started an IT course at her local college but she gave it up as she didn't have enough time to study for it.
Come on, you can't give up now. You've done so well and you're nearly at the end of the course!
BONUS INFORMATION If you are ever in a situation in an English conversation in which you need to guess the answer to something, the correct way to say that you do not know or that you do not have any more guesses is to say "I give up". This will then signify to the other person that you want to stop trying to guess and they will then (normally) tell you the answer. |
MEANING 4: To abandon hope
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper Intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
British or American? | Both |
Potential synonyms | To despair, to admit defeat |
Separable? | No |
As you will have noticed, there is a theme of 'stopping' running across the different meanings of 'give up' and this fourth meaning is no different to the others! In this case however, we are talking specifically about stopping or abandoning hope about something.
The thing that distinguishes this from the previous three usages is that for this one we need the extra preposition 'on' in order to convey our message, giving us the construction 'to give up on something'.
We use this particular construction when we stop hoping that a particular situation is going to change or improve. Consequently, this can mean that we also stop any efforts that we have been making to improve the situation and this can often be inferred in the meaning, (depending on the context).
Typical situations in which native speakers use 'give up on' are romantic relationships that are not working, people that they are trying to help without success, plans that are not succeeding and ideas and plans for the future that they decide not to follow up.
I had given up on the money that my friend owed me, so I was pleasantly surprised when he paid it to me.
Roger fell into some bad ways as a teenager but his mother never gave up on him.
I've given up on the idea of becoming a teacher as I don't think it is right career for me.
IDIOM ALERT! Before we reach the end of this post, I want to make you aware of the English idiom 'to give up the ghost'. This is a fairly common expression in English which dates back hundreds of years and means to stop working or to die. It is normally used to talk about machines and equipment which stop functioning. If this is used for humans, it is usually used when you stop trying to do something because you realise that it will not be successful.
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One final thing to note here is that the expression "I give up" is often used by native speakers as a way of saying that we are frustrated with an unchanging situation or that we have lost hope about something (it could also be said when face palming or throwing your hands up in the air for added effect 😉). This can range from something that is mildly annoying to something very serious.
MEANING 5: To surrender to the police
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper Intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
British or American? | Both |
Potential synonyms | To surrender, to hand oneself in, to give oneself in |
Separable? | Yes - with a reflexive pronoun |
We have now arrived at our fifth and final usage of 'give up', which brings us full circle to the beginning again as it is 'to surrender yourself to the police or authorities for a crime that you have committed'.
This application is used specifically for when a person willingly goes to the police station to say "it was me, I committed the crime" or it could alternatively be used when a person allows themselves to be arrested by the police.
For this usage, the relevant reflexive pronoun (myself, himself etc.) needs to be used between 'give' and 'up' and the additional preposition 'to' is required before 'the police'.
The bank robbers gave themselves up to the police after they realised that they could not evade capture for much longer.
You need to go to the police and give yourself up!
The hijacker refused to give himself up and remained in the building with the hostages for several days.
BONUS INFORMATION
One extra usage of 'give up' that I want to make you aware of is "to give it up for someone", which is a spoken request to a group of people to show their appreciation for someone by clapping, cheering etc. Don't forget to use it with the word 'please' 😜.
Would you please give it up for [insert singer or group name]
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on it and reading it. I hope that you found it useful and have been able to learn something new. 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 up'. 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
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