| / English Dictionary |
GIVE WAY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Stop operating or functioning
Example:
her eyesight went after the accident
Synonyms:
break; break down; conk out; die; fail; give out; give way; go; go bad
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "give way" is one way to...):
change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)
Verb group:
break (render inoperable or ineffective)
buy the farm; cash in one's chips; choke; conk; croak; decease; die; drop dead; exit; expire; give-up the ghost; go; kick the bucket; pass; pass away; perish; pop off; snuff it (pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "give way"):
crash; go down (stop operating)
blow; blow out; burn out (melt, break, or become otherwise unusable)
misfire (fail to fire or detonate)
malfunction; misfunction (fail to function or function improperly)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Sense 2
Meaning:
End resistance, as under pressure or force
Example:
The door yielded to repeated blows with a battering ram
Synonyms:
give way; yield
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "give way" is one way to...):
change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Sense 3
Meaning:
Move in order to make room for someone for something
Example:
'Move over,' he told the crowd
Synonyms:
ease up; give; give way; move over; yield
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "give way" is one way to...):
move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)
Verb group:
abandon; give up (stop maintaining or insisting on; of ideas or claims)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Sentence example:
These cars won't give way
Sense 4
Meaning:
Break down, literally or metaphorically
Example:
The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice
Synonyms:
break; cave in; collapse; fall in; founder; give; give way
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "give way" is one way to...):
change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)
Verb group:
abandon; give up (stop maintaining or insisting on; of ideas or claims)
burst; collapse (cause to burst)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "give way"):
go off; implode (burst inward)
buckle; crumple (fold or collapse)
flop (fall loosely)
break (curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves)
sink; slide down; slump (fall or sink heavily)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Context examples:
Mrs. Dashwood felt too much for speech, and instantly quitted the parlour to give way in solitude to the concern and alarm which this sudden departure occasioned.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
The team is providing critical information needed to document this effect and accurately predict where and how fast glaciers will give way.
(The Hidden Meltdown of Greenland, NASA)
I sometimes thought my mind would give way under it—a meet thing on this ship of madmen and brutes.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
I know the danger of your being so far forgotten, as to have your comforts give way to the imaginary convenience of any single being in the family.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
A second engagement must give way to a first.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Excited by the day- long pursuit of him, swayed subconsciously by the insistent iteration on their brains of the sight of him fleeing away, mastered by the feeling of mastery enjoyed all day, the dogs could not bring themselves to give way to him.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
A Mrs. Knightley for them all to give way to!
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Lady Catherine might see him in her way through town; and his engagement to Bingley of coming again to Netherfield must give way.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
But they were gallantly rallied by their old chief and came on with such a rush that the ape-men began in turn to give way.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
When he got near the battlefield a great part of the king’s men had already fallen, and little was wanting to make the rest give way.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
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