yield the ghost

• yield up the ghost

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yield the ghost (third-person singular simple present yields the ghost, present participle yielding the ghost, simple past and past participle yielded the ghost)

1. (idiomatic) To give up the ghost.
   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], pages line36-38:

     and often did I strive / To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood / Stopped in my soul, and would not let it forth