give and take
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Mutual concessions.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
In this liaison there should be a great deal of give and take, generating trust and mutual respect.
She longed to be back in his arms, to let his lips open her own, to melt against him, to give — and to take — the delight which instinctively she knew they could create together.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “give and take” mean?
Mutual concessions.
Is “give and take” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.