give out

British  

verb

1. (tr) to emit or discharge

2. (tr) to publish or make known

   the chairman gave out that he would resign

3. (tr) to hand out or distribute

   they gave out free chewing gum on the street

4. (intr) to become exhausted; fail

   the supply of candles gave out

5. informal to reprimand (someone) at length

6. (tr) cricket (of an umpire) to declare (a batsman) dismissed

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give out Idioms  

1. Allow to be known, declare publicly, as in They gave out that she was ill . [Mid-1300s]

2. Send forth, emit, as in The machine gave out a steady buzzing . [Mid-1400s]

3. Distribute, as in They gave out surplus food every week . [c. 1700]

4. 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]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

give out

They release in just a few seconds the same energy as the Sun will give out over its entire 10-billion-year lifetime.

From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026

Scheduling this service is especially important if your AC is old or unreliable, because the last thing you need is for it to give out during a heat wave.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 2026

Amid the rush to give out passes to the Clean Air Act, communities already saddled with air pollution find themselves affected once more.

From Salon ● May 10, 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

For the first time in years, I give out Christmas cards.

From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak