 Re: Give up or give in?
"The robber went to the police station and gave himself in". I also read the sentence " After the hostages had been in capivity for two weeks, the terrorists finally decided to give themselves up to the police". What is the difference between these two sentences?
"The robber went to the police station and gave himself in"
'gave himself in(to police custody)' is correct, but not a common expression. More common would be, 'turned himself in to the police'.
However, had the police surprised him whilst he was robbing some house and he tried to escape by running, but saw himself surrounded, nowhere else that he could run to get away, then he would have little choice but to 'give up'.
With the hostages, there was a direct confrontation/stand-off with the police, and finally, after two weeks, they 'gave up', they stopped holding their hostages captive, and probably gave up demanding something like, the release of political prisoners somewhere.
On the other hand, if all the demands of the terrorists had been met, political prisoners released and what have you, we would have said, "The authorities gave in to the terrorists' demands."  |