surrender Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun acceptance of despair
    resignation.
  2. noun a verbal act of admitting defeat
    yielding; giving up.
  3. noun the delivery of a principal into lawful custody
  4. noun the act of surrendering (usually under agreed conditions)
    fall; capitulation.
    • they were protected until the capitulation of the fort
  5. verb give up or agree to forgo to the power or possession of another
    give up.
    • The last Taleban fighters finally surrendered
  6. verb relinquish possession or control over
    cede; give up; deliver.
    • The squatters had to surrender the building after the police moved in

WordNet

Sur*ren"der transitive verb
Etymology
OF. surrendre to deliver; sur over + rendre to render. See Sur-, and Render.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Surrendered ; present participle & verbal noun Surrendering
Definitions
  1. To yield to the power of another; to give or deliver up possession of (anything) upon compulsion or demand; as, to surrender one's person to an enemy or to an officer; to surrender a fort or a ship.
  2. To give up possession of; to yield; to resign; as, to surrender a right, privilege, or advantage.
    To surrender up that right which otherwise their founders might have in them. Hooker.
  3. To yield to any influence, emotion, passion, or power; -- used reflexively; as, to surrender one's self to grief, to despair, to indolence, or to sleep.
  4. (Law) To yield; to render or deliver up; to give up; as, a principal surrendered by his bail, a fugitive from justice by a foreign state, or a particular estate by the tenant thereof to him in remainder or reversion.
Sur*ren"der intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To give up one's self into the power of another; to yield; as, the enemy, seeing no way of escape, surrendered at the first summons.
Sur*ren"der noun
Definitions
  1. The act of surrendering; the act of yielding, or resigning one's person, or the possession of something, into the power of another; as, the surrender of a castle to an enemy; the surrender of a right.
    That he may secure some liberty he makes a surrender in trust of the whole of it. Burke.
  2. (Law) The yielding of a particular estate to him who has an immediate estate in remainder or reversion. (b) The giving up of a principal into lawful custody by his bail. (c) The delivry up oh fugitives from justice by one government to another, as by a foreign state. See Extradition. Wharton.

Webster 1913