SURRENDER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does surrender mean? 

• SURRENDER (noun)
  The noun SURRENDER has 4 senses:

1. acceptance of despair

2. a verbal act of admitting defeat

3. the delivery of a principal into lawful custody

4. the act of surrendering (usually under agreed conditions)

  Familiarity information: SURRENDER used as a noun is uncommon.

• SURRENDER (verb)
  The verb SURRENDER has 2 senses:

1. give up or agree to forgo to the power or possession of another

2. relinquish possession or control over

  Familiarity information: SURRENDER used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SURRENDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Acceptance of despair

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

resignation; surrender

Hypernyms ("surrender" is a kind of...):

despair (the feeling that everything is wrong and nothing will turn out well)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "surrender"):

defeatism (acceptance of the inevitability of defeat)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A verbal act of admitting defeat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

giving up; surrender; yielding

Hypernyms ("surrender" is a kind of...):

relinquishing; relinquishment (a verbal act of renouncing a claim or right or position etc.)

Derivation:

surrender (give up or agree to forgo to the power or possession of another)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The delivery of a principal into lawful custody

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("surrender" is a kind of...):

delivery; legal transfer; livery (the voluntary transfer of something (title or possession) from one party to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "surrender"):

extradition (the surrender of an accused or convicted person by one state or country to another (usually under the provisions of a statute or treaty))

rendition (handing over prisoners to the country in which a crime was committed)

Derivation:

surrender (relinquish possession or control over)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of surrendering (usually under agreed conditions)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

capitulation; fall; surrender

Context example:

they were protected until the capitulation of the fort

Hypernyms ("surrender" is a kind of...):

loss (the act of losing someone or something)

Derivation:

surrender (give up or agree to forgo to the power or possession of another)

• SURRENDER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they surrender    ... he / she / it surrenders   
Past simple: surrendered   
Past participle: surrendered   
-ing form: surrendering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give up or agree to forgo to the power or possession of another

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

give up; surrender

Context example:

The last Taleban fighters finally surrendered

Hypernyms (to "surrender" is one way to...):

yield (cease opposition; stop fighting)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "surrender"):

abnegate (surrender (power or a position))

concede (acknowledge defeat)

capitulate (surrender under agreed conditions)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Antonym:

resist (stand up or offer resistance to somebody or something)

Derivation:

surrender (the act of surrendering (usually under agreed conditions))

surrender (a verbal act of admitting defeat)

surrenderer (a person who yields or surrenders)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Relinquish possession or control over

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

cede; deliver; give up; surrender

Context example:

The squatters had to surrender the building after the police moved in

Hypernyms (to "surrender" is one way to...):

gift; give; present (give as a present; make a gift of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "surrender"):

yield up (surrender, as a result of pressure or force)

sell (give up for a price or reward)

sign away; sign over (formally assign ownership of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Derivation:

surrender (the delivery of a principal into lawful custody)

surrenderer (a person who yields or surrenders)

 Context examples 

A little longer and he would have surrendered and gone to work.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I could hear his teeth rattle in his head, but he had not yet surrendered.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This expression of abandon and surrender, of absolute trust, he reserved for the master alone.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A flank movement produced an unconditional surrender, however, for Laurie knew where to have him.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Here and there was a peasant man or woman kneeling before a shrine, who did not even turn round as we approached, but seemed in the self-surrender of devotion to have neither eyes nor ears for the outer world.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Jane Fairfax did look and move superior; but Emma suspected she might have been glad to change feelings with Harriet, very glad to have purchased the mortification of having loved—yes, of having loved even Mr. Elton in vain—by the surrender of all the dangerous pleasure of knowing herself beloved by the husband of her friend.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

What he says is true, said his master; but it would have been strange indeed if I had hesitated to sacrifice a frail life and failing health in a cause for which I freely surrendered all that youth had to offer.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To have surrendered to temptation; listened to passion; made no painful effort—no struggle;—but to have sunk down in the silken snare; fallen asleep on the flowers covering it; wakened in a southern clime, amongst the luxuries of a pleasure villa: to have been now living in France, Mr. Rochester's mistress; delirious with his love half my time—for he would—oh, yes, he would have loved me well for a while.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

They were eyes that masked the soul with a thousand guises, and that sometimes opened, at rare moments, and allowed it to rush up as though it were about to fare forth nakedly into the world on some wonderful adventure,—eyes that could brood with the hopeless sombreness of leaden skies; that could snap and crackle points of fire like those which sparkle from a whirling sword; that could grow chill as an arctic landscape, and yet again, that could warm and soften and be all a-dance with love-lights, intense and masculine, luring and compelling, which at the same time fascinate and dominate women till they surrender in a gladness of joy and of relief and sacrifice.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

In March of that year Dr. Moore Agar, of Harley Street, whose dramatic introduction to Holmes I may some day recount, gave positive injunctions that the famous private agent lay aside all his cases and surrender himself to complete rest if he wished to avert an absolute breakdown.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)