cede the field
verb1
Government, Military, Politics, War To withdraw from a military confrontation; to yield control of a battlefield to one's opponent.
2
Broadly, Idiomatic To withdraw from any confrontational or potentially confrontational situation; to avoid participating in a competition or contest.
- In some smokestack industries—steel, machine tools and especially cars—the choice was to raise productivity and quality a lot or cede the field to the competition, as American companies did in consumer electronics.1994 February 27, Sylvia Nasar, “The American Economy, Back on Top”, in New York Times, retrieved 08 Aug 2019:
- State Senator McClintock appeared on CNN's Inside Politics on Tuesday and told me he had no intention of following Ueberroth's lead and ceding the field to Schwarzenegger: "I'm in this race right to the finish line."2003 September 10, Judy Woodruff, McClintock: "I'm in this race right to the finish line", CNN, retrieved 23 Sep 2019:
1 more example
- And what will happen to Windows Phone? […] One can't imagine that Ballmer will call it a day and cede the field to Google and Apple.2013 June 24, Jean-Louis Gassée, “Microsoft and Nokia won't beget a Google-Motorola clone”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 12 Aug 2019:
- Synonyms
- give ground
- Related terms
- chicken out, turn tail