What is the origin of the phrase "Given up the ghost"?
e.g. "After 10 years, my DVD player has finally given up the ghost."
Does it have a religious connotation?
Learn English – Origin of “Given up the ghost”
phrase-origin
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Best Answer
Ghost can describe a person’s soul or spirit (if you believe in such things), so if you give it up, possibly to some higher authority, you no longer have it and you die. Its use in that sense is very old, but the expression is probably more used now to describe less dramatic events, as in your example.