give back
verb1
To return, restore (a thing to its original owner or location etc.).
- Give me back my book!
2
Idiomatic To contribute money, goods, or, especially, services for charitable purposes, as if in return for one's own success.
- We organize this Thanksgiving dinner at the old-age home to give back to the community.
3
Archaic To recede; to retreat.
- Yet the Fiends ſeemed to come nearer and nearer, but when they were come even almoſt at him, he cried out with a moſt vehement voice, I will walk in the ſtrength of the Lord God; ſo they gave back, and came no farther.1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress as Originally Published by John Bunyan: Being a Fac-simile Reproduction of the First Edition, London: Elliot Stock […], 1875, →OCLC, page 108:
- Derived terms
- giveback