giveaway

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).”

   “Perhaps the most frequently used giveaway is "free rent," an abatement of rent for a specific period of tenancy.”

   “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.”

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.”

   “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)”

   “Following the feast the tables were cleared, making room for the giveaway.”

   “This has been such a rewarding exercise for so many of us involved in the 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.”

   “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.”

   “Nothing kills profits like product giveaway.”

4. An indicator that makes something obvious or apparent.

   “Near-synonyms: clue, sign, tell”

   “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.”

   “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).”

   “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.”

adj

1. (attributive, not-comparable)free of charge, at no cost.
2. (attributive, not-comparable)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.”