Surrender

How to spell surrender

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce surrender

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does surrender mean?

1. verbTo stop resisting and give yourself, your control, or your possessions up to another's power or authority.
2. nounThe act of giving yourself up or yielding control to another power.

Surrender in a sentence

• verb

  The rebels agreed to surrender once their supplies ran out.

• noun

  The general signed the formal surrender at dawn.

• verb

  Drivers must surrender their licence after a serious offence.

• noun

  The policy includes a surrender value if you cancel early.

Where does surrender come from?

Language of origin: French

Surrender entered English in the 1400s from the Old French phrase 'surrendre', which combined 'sur-', meaning 'over' (from the Latin 'super'), with 'rendre', meaning 'to give back' or 'render'. The 'rendre' element traces back to the Latin 'reddere', literally 'to give back' or 'return', formed from 'red-' (back) and 'dare' (to give). The original legal sense was about handing over property or rights to another person, only later widening to the military sense of yielding oneself or a position to an enemy. The same 'reddere' root sits inside the everyday words 'render' and 'rent', which is a useful reminder that the core idea is one of giving something back. The doubled 'r' in the middle, which catches some writers out, simply reflects the 'sur-' prefix meeting the 'render' stem.

How the word is built

• sur- (over, from Latin super)
• render (to give back, from Latin reddere)