Surrendering

How to spell surrendering

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce surrendering

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does surrendering mean?

1. verbIn the act of yielding, giving up, or handing over something to another, often under pressure or defeat.

Surrendering in a sentence

• The troops had no choice but to consider surrendering before nightfall.

• Surrendering her passport at the border felt strangely final.

Where does surrendering come from?

Language of origin: French

This word descends from the Old French surrendre, a compound of the prefix sur-, meaning 'over' or 'up', and rendre, meaning 'to give back' or 'to deliver'. The rendre part traces to the Latin reddere, 'to return', itself built from re- 'back' and dare 'to give', so the literal idea is 'to give something up entirely'. English adopted surrender in the fifteenth century, at first as a legal term for giving up a right, estate, or claim to another, and only later as the familiar military sense of yielding to an enemy. The present participle 'surrendering' simply adds the -ing ending, and the spelling trap is the double r in the middle followed by the single d, since the word inherits the doubled letter from the French sur- prefix meeting render.

How the word is built

• sur- (over, up)
• render (from Old French rendre: to give back)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)