Give up and leave behind both involve moving on from something, but in different ways. Give up is to stop trying — to surrender effort, a habit, or hope (give up smoking, give up trying). Leave behind is to move past something as you go forward — a place, a rival, an old self — often just by outpacing it (leave the past behind, leave the field behind). Give up halts the effort; leave behind outgrows or outruns the thing.
Both mark a kind of moving on, which lets them meet, but each does something different. Give up is a plain phrasal verb aimed at effort: the striving stops, whether in defeat or healthy release. Leave behind is about forward motion — you keep going and the thing stays put, falling away as you outpace or outgrow it. So you give up running (you stop), but you leave the other runners behind (you pull ahead). Give up is the end of trying; leave behind is the gap that opens as you move on.
give up
To give up is to stop trying — the everyday, colloquial way to say the effort has ended. It aims at striving rather than things: you give up hope, give up smoking, give up on a dream, give up a seat. Where pursue presses on and achieve carries the effort through to its end, give up is the moment the pushing stops. It can mean a healthy letting-go of a habit, or simple defeat; either way, something that was being reached for is released.
leave behind
To leave something behind is to move on without it — sometimes by accident, sometimes just by outpacing it. It can be physical (you leave behind an umbrella) or figurative (you leave behind the doubts of an earlier self). Where abandon is a conscious giving-up and desert is a betrayal of a duty, leave behind is usually incidental or a matter of progress: the thing simply stays put while you carry on. You can also leave behind a legacy — the mark that remains once you have moved on.
| give up | leave behind | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | to stop trying; to surrender effort or a habit | to move past something as you go forward |
| Motion | the effort halts | you keep going; the thing falls away |
| The thing | effort, a habit, hope, a goal | a place, a rival, the past, an old self |
| Tone | defeat or healthy release | progress; often positive |
| Often with | give up trying, smoking, hope, on someone | leave the past behind, leave rivals behind, a legacy |
| Example | He gave up halfway up the climb. | She left her old doubts behind. |
Both move on from something — ask whether the effort stopped or you pulled ahead. Give up is the figure who stops shoving the block and sits down: the trying itself ends — a habit dropped, an attempt called off (give up smoking, give up trying). Leave behind is the man walking out of the café as the bag falls away behind him: you keep moving forward and the thing stays put — outpaced, outgrown, or simply not carried (leave the past behind, leave the field behind). If the effort halts, you give up; if you move past something, you leave it behind.
give up
- iAfter two sleepless weeks he gave up on the project.
- iiShe gave up sweets for the whole of January.
- iiiNever give up just because the first attempt fails.
leave behind
- iThe champion left the rest of the pack behind on the climb.
- iiHe was happy to leave behind the worries of his student years.
- iiiMoving abroad, she left behind everything familiar.
They can both describe parting with the past (give up your old ways / leave your old ways behind), but give up frames it as effort that has stopped, while leave behind frames it as progress you have made — keeping going while the thing falls away. Leave behind is frequently positive (leaving the past behind); give up is more often defeat or deliberate release.