Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Something that is bestowed voluntarily and without compensation.
  • noun The act of giving.
  • noun A talent, endowment, aptitude, or inclination.
  • transitive verb To present something as a gift to.
  • transitive verb To give as a gift.
  • transitive verb To endow with.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To confer or transfer as a gift; make a gift of; donate formally.
  • To endow with a gift or with any power or faculty: chiefly in the past participle.
  • noun The act, right, or power of giving or conferring: as, to get a thing by gift; an office in the gift of the people.
  • noun Specifically, in law: A voluntary transfer of property by the owner of it to another, without consideration or compensation therefor, or without any other consideration than love and affection, or a nominal consideration, or both; a gratuitous assignment. See donation and consideration, In old English law, the creation of an estate in tail (see estate) as distinguished from the creation of an estate in fee simple, which was termed feoffment
  • noun That which is given or bestowed; anything ownership of which is voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation; a present; a donation.
  • noun A natural quality or endowment regarded as conferred; power; faculty: as, the gift of wit; the gift of speech.
  • noun plural White specks on finger-nails, which have been superstitiously supposed to portend gifts.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To endow with some power or faculty. See gift{4}.
  • noun Anything given; anything voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation; a present; an offering.
  • noun The act, right, or power of giving or bestowing.
  • noun A bribe; anything given to corrupt.
  • noun Some exceptional inborn quality or characteristic; a striking or special talent or aptitude; power; faculty
  • noun (Law) A voluntary transfer of real or personal property, without any consideration. It can be perfected only by deed, or in case of personal property, by an actual delivery of possession.
  • noun (Naut) a rope extended to a boat for towing it; a guest rope.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Something given to another voluntarily, without charge.
  • noun A talent or natural ability.
  • noun Something gained incidentally, without effort.
  • verb transitive To give (as a gift) to.
  • verb transitive To give away, to concede easily.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun something acquired without compensation
  • noun natural abilities or qualities
  • verb give as a present; make a gift of
  • verb give qualities or abilities to
  • noun the act of giving

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old Norse; see ghabh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse gipt, cognate with Old English ġift.

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Examples

  • "Enjoy the gift of beauty with the deluxe fall gift* from Estée Lauder.

    Ontario Blogs Feed 2009

  • I realize in religious celebration one may use the term gift as in 'a Sacrament in the Church is a gift, whether it is Anointing of the Sick or Reconciliation 'for those who believe in God.

    MercatorNet 2009

  • I realize in religious celebration one may use the term gift as in 'a Sacrament in the Church is a gift, whether it is Anointing of the Sick or Reconciliation 'for those who believe in God.

    MercatorNet 2009

  • Renee, I simply do not think there is anything amiss with using the term gift when referring to the blessing of a baby.

    MercatorNet 2009

  • I realize in religious celebration one may use the term gift as in 'a Sacrament in the Church is a gift, whether it is Anointing of the Sick or Reconciliation 'for those who believe in God.

    MercatorNet 2009

  • Renee, I simply do not think there is anything amiss with using the term gift when referring to the blessing of a baby.

    MercatorNet 2009

  • Renee, I simply do not think there is anything amiss with using the term gift when referring to the blessing of a baby.

    MercatorNet 2009

  • Anonymous said ... the gift is the unwrapped box below ......

    Well, that takes care of my Christmas shopping Tyler 2009

  • He recently sought permission from the court to sell off some possessions to pay his expenses, including a $40,000-to-$60,000 Andy Warhol print entitled "Liz," which he identified as a gift from the artist, glass frogs and other figurines, a presidential-inaugural medal collection and jewelry from his mother.

    The Case of the Disappearing Documents Ellen Gamerman 2011

  • But besides imagination, skill and observation, Charles Williams had a good purpose, and his gift is all the greater because he puts it to use well: in service of the moral imagination.

    All Hallows’ Eve, by Charles Williams « Unknowing 2010

Comments

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  • see maudlin

    December 6, 2006

  • Your careless gifts of a moment

    Like the meteors of an Autumn night,

    Catch fire in the depth of my being.

    --R. Tagore, Fireflies

    March 9, 2007

  • See giftwrap.

    January 9, 2008

  • German for poison.

    January 9, 2008

  • See verbify.

    And yes, "gift" is one of those falsche Freunden. You think it's going to be a cognate and it turns out it's not!

    March 16, 2008