Give

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɡɪv/

Definitions

1. To transfer something to someone else's ownership or control ; to cause someone to receive or have something ; to yield or grant something to another party
2. To hand over or present an item or benefit to another ; to enable or permit someone to obtain or experience something ; to concede, allow, or provide something to someone
3. To deliver or pass an object or right to another person ; to make available or offer something to somebody ; to bestow or assign something as a favor or right

Etymology: The verb "give" is one of the oldest and most stubbornly basic words in English, and its roots reach back to a Proto-Indo-European form, *gʰebʰ-, that could mean both "to give" and "to take." That double meaning is no accident of translation: the same gesture of handing something over is also the gesture of receiving it, so the root could point either way depending on who was doing the handing. Old English had "giefan" and "gifan," while Old Norse, the language of the Vikings who settled much of northern England, had "gefa," which meant the same thing. Over the Middle English period these two streams merged into a single word, and the Norse influence is visible in the variant "yive," which for a time competed with the native form before giving way. Many of Germanic-speaking Europe still uses a close relative of this word: German "geben," Dutch "geven," Swedish "ge," and Gothic "giban" all descend from the same Proto-Germanic verb.

Synonyms: present, offer, grant, bestow, donate

Antonyms: take, withhold, refuse, retract, deny