giveaway

See also: give away and give-away

English

Alternative forms

• give-away

Etymology

Deverbal from give away.

Noun

giveaway (plural giveaways)

1. Something that is given away or handed out for free.

   Synonym: freebie

   The T-shirt was a giveaway from the company that sells the software.

   • 1983, Teleconnect: The Voice of the Telephone Interconnect Industry:

     Then there's ole' reliable: the giveaway. Everyone loves a giveaway (with the notable exceptions of key chains and nail clippers which have been rendered nearly meaningless by repetition).

   • 1984, Journal of Property Management - Volumes 49-50 - Page 21:

     Perhaps the most frequently used giveaway is "free rent," an abatement of rent for a specific period of tenancy.

   • 2005, Paulette Wolf, Jodi Wolf, Donielle Levine, Event Planning Made Easy:

     These giveaway bags cost tens of thousands of dollars, but the sentiment of a thank you for your guests is at the heart of those giveaway bags.

2. An event at which things are given away for free.
   • 1987, Sun Bear, Edward B. Weinstock, The Path of Power, page 233:

     In this giveaway a person who has had something special happen to him gives gifts to others around him, so that they can share in his feelings.

   • 2001, Kathleen Glenister Roberts, Giving Away: The Performance of Speech and Sign in Powwow Ritual Exchange, page 104:

     His counterpart Tom Wiles also speaks directly for the honored persons in giveaways; in Shannon's outgoing princess giveaway, he addresses a woman named Rose as Shannon gives her a dance shawl: "Shannon says/ now you can kick up your heels" (Wiles 1999)

   • 2012, Chad Hamill, Songs of Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau, page 124:

     Following the feast the tables were cleared, making room for the giveaway.

   • 2015, Sarah Mayberry, Kelly Hunter, Megan Crane, The Great Wedding Giveaway:

     This has been such a rewarding exercise for so many of us involved in the giveaway.

3. The act of giving something away for free.
   • 1955, Ammunition - Volume 13, page 30:

     Frankly, I think extension of this policy to the nation through the Eisenhower administration policy of 'partnership' with private power monopoly would be the most colossal giveaway in history — 20 or 30 times as big as Teapot Dome or Tideland Oil.

   • 1965, Florist & Nursery Exchange - Volume 143, page 29:

     Late May is the target date for giveaway of the new NPP FloraCopter game by retail Aorists to increase their “in-store traffic" and sales.

   • 1990, Good Packaging - Volume 51, page 4:

     Nothing kills profits like product giveaway.

4. An indicator that makes something obvious or apparent.

   The frosting in his beard was a giveaway that he had been munching the cake.

   • 2006, Jonathan Petropoulos, John K. Roth, Gray Zones, page 140:

     Their skin was the real giveaway: again and again it turned out to be fattier and softer than average and therefore warmer.

   • 2009, Robin Le Poidevin, Simons Peter, McGonigal Andrew, The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics, page 452:

     The real giveaway is its showing time's arrows pointing the wrong way: the universe contracting, or entropy spontaneously decreasing (as in the separation, with no energy input, of brine into fresh water and solid salt).

   • 2017, Brock Bloodworth, H. Claire Taylor, Shift Work:

     It was as obvious a giveaway as the deep slash marks across the human part of the torso, shredding the werewolf's clothes and staining the cloth with a deep burgundy of blood.

   • 2018, John W. Barnhill, Approach to the Psychiatric Patient, page 451:

     Therapeutic zeal is express in a number of ways, some of them quite obvious, others subtle. A therapeutic manner that is too self-assured and controlling is a dead giveaway. Other obvious signs of therapeutic zeal include getting annoyed or openly frustrated with patients who do not change in the way the therapist desires; "blaming" the patient by vidictively attributing lack of results to more severe pathology than was intially assumed; or overusing such terms as passive aggressive and poorly motivated.

   • 2021, Alfonso K. Fillon, Green Anoles - How to Raise Green Anoles as a Real Life Hobby:

     In my research, I learned that the male had a little differently shaped head but that the real giveaway was that the male would periodically exhibit a bright orange to reddish colored "dewlap" extended under its throat while bobbing it's ^[sic] head as an exhibition of his maleness.

Usage notes

• The verb to give away is two words.

Derived terms

• dead giveaway
• giveaway price

Related terms

• giveback
• takeaway

 

Translations

something given away, for free

• Finnish: ilmainen (fi) (free, adjective), kylkiäinen (fi) (with something else)

event where something is given away for free

• Finnish: tapahtuma, jossa jaetaan ilmaiseksi (if people are given an item for as long as there is supply), arvonta (fi) (if the people who receive an item are decided randomly)
• Spanish: rifa gratiñán f, porra gratarola f, lotería gratis f

giving something away for free

• Finnish: lahjoittaminen (fi), ilmaiseksi antaminen

indicator that something is obvious or apparent

• Finnish: paljastava asia, paljastava tekijä
• Indonesian: tanda jelas

Adjective

giveaway (not comparable)

1. (attributive) free of charge, at no cost.
2. (attributive, of prices) very low.
   • 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:

     There was also the influx of a third of a million road lorries, sold at giveaway prices after their war roles ceased and used by competing one-man businesses to skim off sundry agricultural freight.