yield

American  

[yeeld] / jild /

verb (used with object)

yields, present (3rd person singular) yielded, past participle, past yielding present participle

1. to give forth or produce by a natural process or in return for cultivation.

   This farm yields enough fruit to meet all our needs.

   Synonyms:

   bear, render, supply, furnish

2. to produce or furnish (payment, profit, or interest).

   a trust fund that yields ten percent interest annually; That investment will yield a handsome return.

3. to give up, as to superior power or authority.

   They yielded the fort to the enemy.

   Synonyms:

   forgo, waive, abdicate, abandon

4. to give up or surrender (oneself ).

   He yielded himself to temptation.

   Antonyms:

   resist

5. to give up or over; relinquish or resign.

   to yield the floor to the senator from Ohio.

6. to give as due or required.

   to yield obedience to one's teachers.

   Synonyms:

   render

7. to cause; give rise to.

   The play yielded only one good laugh.

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verb (used without object)

yields, present (3rd person singular) yielded, past participle, past yielding present participle

1. to give a return, as for labor expended; produce; bear.

2. to surrender or submit, as to superior power.

   The rebels yielded after a week.

3. to give way to influence, entreaty, argument, or the like.

   Don't yield to their outrageous demands.

   Synonyms:

   bow, comply, give in

4. to give place or precedence (usually followed byto ).

   to yield to another; Will the senator from New York yield?

5. to give way to force, pressure, etc., so as to move, bend, collapse, or the like.

   I've pushed and pushed, but this door will not yield.

noun

yields plural

1. something yielded.

   Synonyms:

   fruit

2. the quantity or amount yielded.

3. the act or process of yielding.

   the yield of plastic materials under stress.

4. Chemistry. the quantity of product formed by the interaction of two or more substances, generally expressed as a percentage of the quantity obtained to that theoretically obtainable.

5. the income produced by a financial investment, usually shown as a percentage of cost.

6. a measure of the destructive energy of a nuclear explosion, expressed in kilotons of the amount of TNT that would produce the same destruction.

yield British  

/ jiːld /

verb

1. to give forth or supply (a product, result, etc), esp by cultivation, labour, etc; produce or bear

2. (tr) to furnish as a return

   the shares yielded three per cent

3. to surrender or relinquish, esp as a result of force, persuasion, etc

4. to give way, submit, or surrender, as through force or persuasion

   she yielded to his superior knowledge

5. to agree; comply; assent

   he eventually yielded to their request for money

6. (tr) to grant or allow; concede

   to yield right of way

7. obsolete (tr) to pay or repay

   God yield thee!

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noun

1. the result, product, or amount yielded

2. the profit or return, as from an investment or tax

3. the annual income provided by an investment, usually expressed as a percentage of its cost or of its current value

   the yield on these shares is 15 per cent at today's market value

4. the energy released by the explosion of a nuclear weapon expressed in terms of the amount of TNT necessary to produce the same energy

5. chem the quantity of a specified product obtained in a reaction or series of reactions, usually expressed as a percentage of the quantity that is theoretically obtainable

yield Cultural  

1. The income from a fixed-income security as a percentage of its market price. For example, if the market price of a bond declines, its yield rises.

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Synonym Usage

Yield, submit, surrender mean to give way or give up to someone or something. To yield is to concede under some degree of pressure, but not necessarily to surrender totally: to yield ground to an enemy. To submit is to give up more completely to authority, superior force, etc., and to cease opposition, although usually with reluctance: to submit to control. To surrender is to give up complete possession of, relinquish, and cease claim to: to surrender a fortress, one's freedom, rights. See crop.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underyield
  noun
• yielder
  noun
• outyield
  verb (used with object)
• underyield
  verb (used without object)
• unyielded
  adjective
• yieldable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• yields
  plural

Participles

• yielding
  present
• yielded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• yield
  simple
• yields
  simple
• have yielded
  perfect
• has yielded
  perfect
• am yielding
  progressive
• are yielding
  progressive
• is yielding
  progressive
• have been yielding
  perfect progressive
• has been yielding
  perfect progressive

Past

• yielded
  simple
• had yielded
  perfect
• was yielding
  progressive
• were yielding
  progressive
• had been yielding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will yield
  simple
• will have yielded
  perfect
• will be yielding
  progressive
• will have been yielding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of yield

First recorded before 900; (for the verb) Middle English y(i)elden, Old English g(i)eldan “to pay”; cognate with German gelten “to be worth, apply to”; noun derivative of the verb

Explanation

Yield has two meanings that seem quite different: "an amount" or "to give way." The yield of the recipe was twelve brownies. To avoid being tripped, Mary was forced to yield to the children on her way to the brownie plate. While these meanings seem quite different, they both essentially mean "to give." The recipe gives twelve brownies to those who follow it, and Mary is giving up her right to go first. Yield can also mean the rate of return on an investment. A bond yields an interest rate of 2%, or gives an investor $2.00 for every $100 invested.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yield yields yielded yielding

That makes for a dividend yield of 9.43%, based on Tuesday’s closing share price.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

The 10-year Bund yield rose 1.6 basis points to 3.180%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Investors like to say there’s nothing “magical” about a 5% Treasury yield.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

Treasury yields were steady—with the 10-year yield close to an earlier two-month high—as oil prices rose and Middle East strikes continued.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

To agitate him thus deeply, by a resistance he so abhorred, was cruel: to yield was out of the question.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Given the large U.S. deficit and the historic spending spree expected for the AI buildout, “there will be plenty of chances to buy at higher yields in longer-duration debt,” Payne said.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

Treasury yields could weigh on risk sentiment, analysts say.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Higher yields make it more expensive for the government, businesses and households to borrow.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

Pension funds and insurers that need to match the durations of their liabilities with similar assets snap up the longest-dated bonds even when yields are absurdly low.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

A similar calculation using 23 rather than 5 yields V2, or 50 percent, as the probability that at least two of twenty-three people will have a common birthday.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

Overall, though, the 78th Emmy Awards nominations yielded a typical slate of choices.

From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026

But his search yielded only crushed masonry; no bones, and no sign of his son, or the others killed with him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

Throughout human history, war routinely yielded profit for some, while also advancing business.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

After England failed to make a breakthrough in the first 40 minutes, Stokes' eight overs yielded three wickets and a dropped catch.

From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026

At sight of the golden bough, however, he yielded and took them across.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

Because they hold that cash for long periods, the firms can invest profitably in complex, high yielding debt—as long as regulators don’t require them to hold too much money in reserves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

The vast oilfields of Long Beach and Wilmington and Signal Hill are still yielding it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026

“The stock market gives you 10% to 11% a year with a ton of volatility, so how could something that’s yielding 11.5% give you none,” said Scargall.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

The result is that better values lie in long-term munis now yielding 4%, closer to Treasury rates.

From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026

A local species of squash provided small containers, as well as yielding edible seeds.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• crop
• earnings
• harvest
• income
• output
• profit
• return
• revenue
• turnout