詞源

字面意思為死亡時從體内釋出靈魂。來自中古英語 "gaf up þe gost"，"ʒave up þe gost"，来自古英語短語如"hēo āġeaf hire gāst"（字面意思為她放棄了她的靈魂），"þæt iċ gāst mīnne āġifan mōte"（字面意思為我必須放棄我的靈魂）等。对比德語 和荷蘭語 。

发音

• 音訊（澳洲）：

  (檔案)

动词

(第三人稱單數簡單現在時，現在分詞，過去式，過去分詞)

1. (不及物，俗語) 死；斷氣；見閻王

   近義詞： 、；亦參見Thesaurus:die

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 15:37:

     And Ieſus cryed with a loude voice, and gaue vp the ghoſt.

     耶穌大聲喊叫，氣就斷了。

2. (不及物，俗語，比喻義) 壞了，不能運作

   My old computer finally gave up the ghost the other day.

   前幾天我的舊電腦終於壞了。

3. (不及物，後接of) 放棄對……的希望
   • 1993 2月 8, “A Magical History Tour”, 出自 Time:

     But McCartney, 50, is hardly ready to give up the ghost of his creative past.

     （請為本引文添加中文翻譯）

   • 1995, Bad Boys

     Burnett holds the door while Lowrey holds Francine. She's broken, crying, and giving up the ghost of her past.

   • 2000 1月 14, Kevin Maney, “Gates closes an era Microsoft prepares to lay out a road map”, 出自 USA Today:

     Its Windows CE, ostensibly for consumer electronics, is flailing, largely because Microsoft has taken a PC mentality to develop CE, unable to give up the ghost of its heritage.

     （請為本引文添加中文翻譯）

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