In the movie Paycheck, Ben Affleck finds himself under attack from Uma Thurman’s futuristic weather machine. Buffeted by gale-force winds, Affleck raises his hands and calls out, “Alright, I give up! I give up!”
Thurman turns off the weather, smiles mischievously, and coos, “Don’t give up.”
There is more than one way to give up. In the sense of surrender, it means to admit defeat, as in battle or debate. In the sense of relinquish, it means to hand over, as in payment, property, or power.
Yet another synonym for give up is to capitulate, often used to mean conditional surrender. It’s that implied sense of conditionality that makes the word worthy of contemplation, particularly about one common variant . . . which happens to be this week’s entry into the Ethical Lexicon:
