give out
Britishverb
-
(tr) to emit or discharge
-
(tr) to publish or make known
the chairman gave out that he would resign
-
(tr) to hand out or distribute
they gave out free chewing gum on the street
-
(intr) to become exhausted; fail
the supply of candles gave out
-
informal to reprimand (someone) at length
-
(tr) cricket (of an umpire) to declare (a batsman) dismissed
-
Allow to be known, declare publicly, as in They gave out that she was ill . [Mid-1300s]
-
Send forth, emit, as in The machine gave out a steady buzzing . [Mid-1400s]
-
Distribute, as in They gave out surplus food every week . [c. 1700]
-
Stop functioning, fail; also, become exhausted or used up. For example, The motor gave out suddenly , or My strength simply gave out . [First half of 1500s]
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.
“So they can use it to give out loans,” said one student, a junior.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 21, 2026
The group will also give out prayer cards featuring a prayer written by pupils from The Archbishop's School in Canterbury.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
And user trust is still an ongoing issue, given the potential for AI chatbots to hallucinate or otherwise give out bad information.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
“When you’re kind of in the end process of getting back onto the court, there is such a mental barrier of, is my knee going to give out again?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2026
Doc Wilkinson tells me her poor heart just give out, and that’s the scientific diagnosis.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
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.
