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“Give It A Rest!” – And Other “Give It” Phrases

Bill kept his eyes focused on the screen, ignoring his sister’s voice in the background.

– “Bill. BILL! You’ve been playing that game all night! When are you going to do your assignment?”

– “Oh, give it a rest! It’s not due for another week.”

Give it a rest is a spoken English phrase used to tell someone that you’ve had enough of hearing them talking about a particular topic, and you would like them to stop talking about it.

Basically you’re annoyed and would like them to stop and to be quiet about it.

In fact, it can be quite direct, asking someone to shut up:

– “How many times do I have to tell you, Eve! You’ve got to look for a new job!”
– “Jake, give it a rest, ok!”

However, sometimes it can mean you just want to change topic because you’ve talked about it enough already:

– “Hey we’ve been talking about this all night. Maybe we should give it a rest.”
– “Yeah, you’re right there. Let’s go grab another beer..”

Sometimes it can be used with humour:

– “I see John’s still trying to ask Julie out on a date. When will he give it a rest..”

Here are a few more examples from Twitter:

There are also other ‘give it’ expressions, as you can see below:

Give it a go

This means to give it a try. Usually it’s to encourage someone to try doing something:

– “I’m not sure if this diet will work, but give it a go.”

Another example:

– “I really love zouk. You should give it a go.”

Give it a day or two

The idea here is to be patient and wait a day or two to see if things get better:

Give it a hundred percent

This means to work very hard and give it all your effort.

– “Ok guys, we’ve got a big match today. Let’s all put in and give it a hundred percent!”

Give it a miss

This is used to say that a place you went to or something you saw is not good or you don’t recommend it:

– “The new Leonardo Di Caprio film sucks. Give it a miss.”

You can also use it to say you’re not going to a particular event:

– “Are you coming to the Spanish party this week..?”
– “Sorry, can’t. Got to do my homework. I’ll have to give it a miss this time.”

Give it a chance

To give it a try:

Give it a listen

– “I really love the songs on Lost Girl, especially Dark Runs Out. Give it a listen!”

Give it a year

Sometimes said with humour, this expression is used to predict something happening in the future, usually something bad. Often it’s used to predict how long a relationship will last:

– “Gillian is getting married to Pavla?! Ha, I give it a year.”

Give it a shot

This also means to give it a try, to make an attempt to do something, particularly in order to try to achieve something:

– “I’m not sure if I’m ready for the casting but I’ll give it a shot.”

Give It A Like

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Comments

  1. Would it be ok to say ‘hey, we´ve been banging on about this all night. Let´s give it a rest’ ? Cheers

    Reply

  2. Hi Fabiano

    Exactly! In this example it sounds like you’re having a friendly debate but you feel it might be best to take a breather after talking about it all night.

    “We’ve been banging on about…” is also a nice slang expression btw 🙂

    David

    Reply

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