white flag

American  

noun

1. an all-white banner or piece of cloth, used as a symbol of surrender or truce.

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idioms

1. hoist / show / wave the white flag, to give up; weaken; yield.

white flag British  

noun

1. a white flag or a piece of white cloth hoisted to signify surrender or request a truce

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Other Word Forms

• white-flag
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of white flag

First recorded in 1590–1600

Example Sentences

After a week-long pause in the case, Bloom returned to court to wave a white flag Tuesday afternoon.

From Los Angeles Times • May 5, 2026

In short, they are waving the white flag on the idea of predicting when the war will end and the oil will flow.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 31, 2026

Wall Street’s last remaining Seagate bear waved the white flag on his Negative rating earlier this month.

From Barron's • Jan. 30, 2026

“We do not like the risk reward that these situations offer, and therefore we put up the white flag and said, ‘we can’t compete in this segment right now,’” Jain said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 25, 2025

‘Well,” Grandpa said, “there’s supposed to be a white flag in the mouth of Black Fox. That’s where we leave the road. The camp is in the river bottoms.”

From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls