GIVING UP

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does giving up mean? 

• GIVING UP (noun)
  The noun GIVING UP has 2 senses:

1. a verbal act of admitting defeat

2. the act of forsaking

  Familiarity information: GIVING UP used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GIVING UP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A verbal act of admitting defeat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

giving up; surrender; yielding

Hypernyms ("giving up" is a kind of...):

relinquishing; relinquishment (a verbal act of renouncing a claim or right or position etc.)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of forsaking

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

forsaking; giving up

Hypernyms ("giving up" is a kind of...):

forgoing; forswearing; renunciation (the act of renouncing; sacrificing or giving up or surrendering (a possession or right or title or privilege etc.))

 Context examples 

It cost her a pang even to think of giving up the little treasures which in her eyes were as precious as the old lady's jewels.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"She must be worth it. Think what I'm giving up. Surely it is a reasonable price."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

But you need not imagine Mr. Weston to have felt what you would feel in giving up Henry or John.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Miss Bingley said something of his never returning to Netherfield again, of giving up the house, but not with any certainty.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The Ghost suddenly changed her course, keeping away, and it came to me with a shock that Wolf Larsen was giving up the rescue as impossible.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Research has also shown that increased awareness of the baby during pregnancy is associated with healthy behaviours during pregnancy, such as giving up smoking or attending antenatal appointments.

(Mother’s attitude towards baby during pregnancy may have implications for child’s development, University of Cambridge)

Twice she thrust forward at it, and twice she drew back, until at last, giving up in despair, she sat herself down by the brink and wrung her hands wearily.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He wrote prodigiously, and he read prodigiously, forgetting in his toil the pangs caused by giving up his tobacco.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She could not think the Tilneys had acted quite well by her, in so readily giving up their engagement, without sending her any message of excuse.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

And I had hardly moved before the boat, giving up at once her gentle dancing movement, ran straight down a slope of water so steep that it made me giddy, and struck her nose, with a spout of spray, deep into the side of the next wave.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)