From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgive up phrasal verb1 give something ↔ upSTOP DOING something to stop doing something, especially something that you do regularly Darren has decided to give up football at the end of this season. She gave up her job and started writing poetry.give up doing something I gave up going to the theatre when I moved out of London. Why don’t you give up smoking?2 STOP DOING somethingto stop trying to do something We spent half an hour looking for the keys, but eventually gave up and went home. I give up. What’s the answer? You shouldn’t give up so easily.give up doing something I gave up trying to persuade him to continue with his studies.give something ↔ up She has still not given up the search. The ground was too hard to dig so I gave it up as a bad job (=stopped trying because success seemed unlikely).3 give yourself/somebody upCATCH to allow yourself or someone else to be caught by the police or enemy soldiers The siege ended peacefully after the gunman gave himself up.give yourself/somebody up to In the end, his family gave him up to the police.4 give up somethingSPEND TIME to use some of your time to do a particular thing I don’t mind giving up a couple of hours a week to deal with correspondence.5 give something/somebody ↔ upGIVE to give something that is yours to someone else The family refused to give up any of their land. She was put under tremendous pressure to give the baby up.give something/somebody ↔ up to I would always give my seat up to an elderly person on the bus. 6 give somebody ↔ upFINISH/COME TO AN ENDRELATIONSHIP to end a romantic relationship with someone, even though you do not really want to I knew deep down that I should give him up.7 give somebody up for dead/lost etcDIE to believe that someone is dead and stop looking for them The ship sank and the crew were given up for dead.8 give it up for somebody spoken informal used to ask people to applaud someone → give up the ghost at ghost1(5) → give→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
give up• Americans love their cars, and no-one is going to persuade them to give them up.• I used to really enjoy dancing, but I had to give it up after I became ill.• Fania was prepared to give up all her jewelry to help her father get out of debt.• She gave up drinking over 10 years ago.• As he grew older he gave up going for walks and seldom went out.• He gave up his job so that he could look after his wife.• I made several attempts to repair the damage, but gave up in the end.• Russia is very unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons.• If you smoke, try to give up or at least cut down.• We will never give up our struggle.• After the accident she had to give up riding and farming.• I've given up trying to get her to change her mind.• We did start a protest, but gave it up when we realized we would never be successful.• Come on, don't give up yet!give up doing something• I gave up smoking when I got pregnant.• Vladimir has given up trying to teach her Russian.give up ... easily• As for myself, I am not one to give up his passions easily.• In any case, neither bird gives up its secrets easily.• Still, this wasn't a fellow to give up easily.• These are titles I cherish and do not intend to give up easily.• They did not give up their privileges easily.• Whatever it is beneath the sunny waves, it is not giving up easily.• When challenged, he may give up easily and retreat to his own world.• These students tend to have poor tolerance for frustration and give up easily when tasks become difficult. 23.give yourself/somebody up• He is not going to give that up.• I kept starting new regimes, then finding I couldn't give them up.• I had to give the ball up, and then I had work my butt off to get it back.• That's why I want to give it up for adoption.• But then, why give them up so abruptly?• In return for our consent, he swore he would give it up the day after he won the election.• But we would not give it up without a desperate struggle.give to• They gave bonuses of up to $ 1,000 per person to reward outstanding group effort.• He also wants to give families up to $ 10,000 in annual tax deductions for college costs.• She gave that up to become a secretary.• They were both dead by the time Goulais gave himself up to the police.• Printer and scanner performed well, but neither gave results up to the specification of the rest of the system.• Will they give themselves up to the tribunal?give somebody up for dead/lost etc• After much searching, the village people gave Kay up for dead.• Gray had been missing for over a year, and his wife was ready to give him up for dead.• On the thirteenth day, Kasturbai knelt before a sacred plant and prayed; she had given him up for lost.• It is as if he gave them up for dead when they left Shiloh. 