giveaway

Etymology

From give + away.

noun

1. Something that is given away or handed out for free.
   The T-shirt was a giveaway from the company that sells the software.
   Then there's ole' reliable: the giveaway. Everyone loves a giveaway (with the notable exceptions of key chains and nail clippers which have been rendered nearly meaningless by repetition). 1983, Teleconnect: The Voice of the Telephone Interconnect Industry
   Perhaps the most frequently used giveaway is "free rent," an abatement of rent for a specific period of tenancy. 1984, Journal of Property Management - Volumes 49-50 - Page 21
   These giveaway bags cost tens of thousands of dollars, but the sentiment of a thank you for your guests is at the heart of those giveaway bags. 2005, Paulette Wolf, Jodi Wolf, Donielle Levine, Event Planning Made Easy
2. An event at which things are given away for free.
   In this giveaway a person who has had something special happen to him gives gifts to others around him, so that they can share in his feelings. 1987, Sun Bear, Edward B. Weinstock, The Path of Power, page 233
   His counterpart Tom Wiles also speaks directly for the honored persons in giveaways; in Shannon's outgoing princess giveaway, he addresses a woman named Rose as Shannon gives her a dance shawl: "Shannon says/ now you can kick up your heels" (Wiles 1999) 2001, Kathleen Glenister Roberts, Giving Away: The Performance of Speech and Sign in Powwow Ritual Exchange, page 104
   Following the feast the tables were cleared, making room for the giveaway. 2012, Chad Hamill, Songs of Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau, page 124
   This has been such a rewarding exercise for so many of us involved in the giveaway. 2015, Sarah Mayberry, Kelly Hunter, Megan Crane, The Great Wedding Giveaway
3. The act of giving something away for free.
   Frankly, I think extension of this policy to the nation through the Eisenhower administration policy of 'partnership' with private power monopoly would be the most colossal giveaway in history — 20 or 30 times as big as Teapot Dome or Tideland Oil. 1955, Ammunition - Volume 13, page 30
   Late May is the target date for giveaway of the new NPP FloraCopter game by retail Aorists to increase their “in-store traffic" and sales. 1965, Florist & Nursery Exchange - Volume 143, page 29
   Nothing kills profits like product giveaway. 1990, Good Packaging - Volume 51, page 4
4. An indicator that makes something obvious or apparent.
   The frosting in his beard was a giveaway that he had been munching the cake.
   Their skin was the real giveaway: again and again it turned out to be fattier and softer than average and therefore warmer. 2006, Jonathan Petropoulos, John K. Roth, Gray Zones, page 140
   The real giveaway is its showing time's arrows pointing the wrong way: the universe contracting, or entropy spontaneously decreasing (as in the separation, with no energy input, of brine into fresh water and solid salt). 2009, Robin Le Poidevin, Simons Peter, McGonigal Andrew, The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics, page 452
   It was as obvious a giveaway as the deep slash marks across the human part of the torso, shredding the werewolf's clothes and staining the cloth with a deep burgundy of blood. 2017, Brock Bloodworth, H. Claire Taylor, Shift Work
   Therapeutic zeal is express in a number of ways, some of them quite obvious, others subtle. A therapeutic manner that is too self-assured and controlling is a dead giveaway. Other obvious signs of therapeutic zeal include getting annoyed or openly frustrated with patients who do not change in the way the therapist desires; "blaming" the patient by vidictively attributing lack of results to more severe pathology than was intially assumed; or overusing such terms as passive aggressive and poorly motivated. 2018, John W. Barnhill, Approach to the Psychiatric Patient, page 451
   In my research, I learned that the male had a little differently shaped head but that the real giveaway was that the male would periodically exhibit a bright orange to reddish colored "dewlap" extended under its throat while bobbing it's head as an exhibition of his maleness. 2021, Alfonso K. Fillon, Green Anoles - How to Raise Green Anoles as a Real Life Hobby

adj

1. (attributive) free of charge, at no cost.
2. (attributive, of prices) very low.
   There was also the influx of a third of a million road lorries, sold at giveaway prices after their war roles ceased and used by competing one-man businesses to skim off sundry agricultural freight. March 8 2023, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51