gift
1 Americannoun
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something given voluntarily without payment in return, as to show favor toward someone, honor an occasion, or make a gesture of assistance; present.
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the act of giving.
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something bestowed or acquired without any particular effort by the recipient or without its being earned.
Those extra points he got in the game were a total gift.
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a special ability or capacity; natural endowment; talent.
the gift of saying the right thing at the right time.
verb (used with object)
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to present with as a gift; bestow gifts upon; endow with.
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to present (someone) with a gift.
just the thing to gift the newlyweds.
noun
noun
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something given; a present
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a special aptitude, ability, or power; talent
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the power or right to give or bestow (esp in the phrases in the gift of, in ( someone's ) gift )
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the act or process of giving
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(usually negative) to find fault with a free gift or chance benefit
verb
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to present (something) as a gift to (a person)
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(often foll by with) to present (someone) with a gift
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rare to endow with; bestow
acronym
Related Words
See present 2.
Other Word Forms
- giftless adjective
Etymology
Origin of gift
First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English, from Old Norse gift; cognate with Old English gift ( Middle English yift ) “marriage gift”; akin to give
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“You have to keep coming back. So, I received the grace of being rejected, the grace of being despised, and the gift of saying: ‘Okay, now we’re going to start all over again.’”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
One source close to Spurs suggested Tudor was a leaving gift suggestion from former sporting director Fabio Paratici.
From BBC • Mar. 29, 2026
A gift: from my lucky stars and Father Time.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 27, 2026
That brings me to my question: How could this relative gift money to our daughter without giving her immediate and unsupervised access to it?
From MarketWatch • Mar. 26, 2026
Now that I’m going to her party, I need to have my gift ready.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.