What is "to yield up the ghost"

Ghost \Ghost\ (g[=o]st), n. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. g[=a]st breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g[=e]st spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]

1. The spirit; the soul of man. [Obs.]

   Then gives her grieved ghost thus to lament.
   --Spenser.

2. The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death; an apparition; a specter.

   The mighty ghosts of our great Harrys rose.
   --Shak.

   I thought that I had died in sleep, And was a blessed ghost.
   --Coleridge.

3. Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea.

   Each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
   --Poe.

4. A false image formed in a telescope by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.

   Ghost moth (Zo["o]l.), a large European moth ( Hepialus humuli); so called from the white color of the male, and the peculiar hovering flight; -- called also great swift.

   Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit; the Paraclete; the Comforter; (Theol.) the third person in the Trinity.

   To give up the ghost or To yield up the ghost, to die; to expire.

   And he gave up the ghost full softly.
   --Chaucer.

   Jacob . . . yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
   --Gen. xlix. 33.

Yield \Yield\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Yielded; obs. p. p. Yold; p. pr. & vb. n. Yielding.] [OE. yelden, [yogh]elden, [yogh]ilden, AS. gieldan, gildan, to pay, give, restore, make an offering; akin to OFries. jelda, OS. geldan, D. gelden to cost, to be worth, G. gelten, OHG. geltan to pay, restore, make an offering, be worth, Icel. gjalda to pay, give up, Dan. gielde to be worth, Sw. g["a]lla to be worth, g["a]lda to pay, Goth. gildan in fragildan, usgildan. Cf. 1st Geld, Guild.]

1. To give in return for labor expended; to produce, as payment or interest on what is expended or invested; to pay; as, money at interest yields six or seven per cent.

   To yelde Jesu Christ his proper rent.
   --Chaucer.

   When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.
   --Gen. iv. 1

2. 2. To furnish; to afford; to render; to give forth. ``Vines yield nectar.''
   --Milton.

   [He] makes milch kine yield blood.
   --Shak.

   The wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.
   --Job xxiv. 5.

3. To give up, as something that is claimed or demanded; to make over to one who has a claim or right; to resign; to surrender; to relinquish; as a city, an opinion, etc.

   And, force perforce, I'll make him yield the crown.
   --Shak.

   Shall yield up all their virtue, all their fame.
   --Milton.

4. To admit to be true; to concede; to allow.

   I yield it just, said Adam, and submit.
   --Milton.

5. To permit; to grant; as, to yield passage.

6. To give a reward to; to bless. [Obs.]
   --Chaucer.

   Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more, And the gods yield you for 't.
   --Shak.

   God yield thee, and God thank ye.
   --Beau. & Fl.

   To yield the breath, To yield the breath up, To yield the ghost, To yield the ghost up, To yield up the ghost, or To yield the life, to die; to expire; -- similar to To give up the ghost.

   One calmly yields his willing breath.
   --Keble.