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yield

[yeeld]
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verb (used with object)
  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.
  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.
  4. to give up or surrender (oneself): He yielded himself to temptation.
  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.
  7. to cause; give rise to: The play yielded only one good laugh.
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verb (used without object)
  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.
  4. to give place or precedence (usually followed by to): 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.
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noun
  1. something yielded.
  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.
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Origin of yield

before 900; (v.) Middle English y(i)elden, Old English g(i)eldan to pay; cognate with German gelten to be worth, apply to; (noun) late Middle English, derivative of the v.
Related formsyield·er, nounout·yield, verb (used with object)un·der·yield, nounun·der·yield, verb (used without object)un·yield·ed, adjective

Synonyms

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1. furnish, supply, render, bear. 3. abandon, abdicate, waive, forgo. 6. render. 10. give in, comply, bow. 13. fruit.

Synonym study

3. 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. 13. See crop.

Antonyms

4. resist.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

returnrevenueprofitturnoutcropearningsincomeoutputharvestsupplyearnofferprovidepaygiveallowgeneratebuyleavebow

Examples from the Web for yield

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Let her think that your own impulse leads you, and then she will yield.

    Malbone

    Thomas Wentworth Higginson

  • So you know your destiny; and have nothing to do but to yield to it.

    Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)

    Samuel Richardson

  • The plea touched to the bottom of her heart, but she could not, would not yield.

    Within the Law

    Marvin Dana

  • He wishes me to yield myself fully to Him in heart and life.

  • Were she to yield to evil she would suffer eternal remorse in consequence.

    The Dream

    Emile Zola

British Dictionary definitions for yield

yield

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 returnthe shares yielded three per cent
  3. (tr often foll by up) to surrender or relinquish, esp as a result of force, persuasion, etc
  4. (intr sometimes foll by to) to give way, submit, or surrender, as through force or persuasionshe yielded to his superior knowledge
  5. (intr often foll by to) to agree; comply; assenthe eventually yielded to their request for money
  6. (tr) to grant or allow; concedeto yield right of way
  7. (tr) obsolete to pay or repayGod 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 valuethe 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
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Derived Formsyieldable, adjectiveyielder, noun

Word Origin

Old English gieldan; related to Old Frisian jelda, Old High German geltan, Old Norse gjalda, Gothic gildan
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for yield

v.

Old English geldan (Anglian), gieldan (West Saxon) "to pay" (class III strong verb; past tense geald, past participle golden), from Proto-Germanic *geldanan "pay" (cf. Old Saxon geldan "to be worth," Old Norse gjaldo "to repay, return," Middle Dutch ghelden, Dutch gelden "to cost, be worth, concern," Old High German geltan, German gelten "to be worth," Gothic fra-gildan "to repay, requite").

Perhaps from PIE *ghel-to- "I pay," found only in Balto-Slavic and Germanic, unless Old Church Slavonic zledo, Lithuanian geliuoti are Germanic loan-words. Sense developed in English via use to translate Latin reddere, French rendre, and had expanded by c.1300 to "repay, return, render (service), produce, surrender." Related to Middle Low German and Middle Dutch gelt, Dutch geld, German Geld "money." Yielding in sense of "giving way to physical force" is recorded from 1660s.

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n.

Old English gield "payment, sum of money" (see yield (v.)); extended sense of "production" (as of crops) is first attested mid-15c. Earliest English sense survives in financial "yield from investments."

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
yield in Culture

yield

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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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.