What it means
دست برداشتن (dast bar dâshtan) means to give up, to stop pursuing something, or to let go of an effort or claim. The literal image is lifting your hand away from something you were holding, but the verb is almost exclusively used in its figurative sense. All three components are pure Persian: دست (dast, hand), بر (bar, a directional particle meaning up or off), and داشتن (dâshtan, to hold or have). The construction requires the preposition از (az, from): you دست بر میداری از چیزی, you lift your hand away from something. A close synonym is ول کردن (vol kardan), which is more colloquial and can also mean to let go physically.
How to use it
- از این ایده دست بردار، فایده نداره. (az in ide dast bardâr, fâyde nadâre.) “Give up on this idea, it is no use.”
- اون از رویاش دست برنمیداره. (oon az ru-yâsh dast bar-nemi-dâre.) “He never gives up on his dream.”
- از من دست بردار، حوصله ندارم. (az man dast bardâr, howsele nadâram.) “Leave me alone, I am not in the mood.”
- آخرش از دعواش دست برداشت. (âkhresh az da’vâsh dast bardâsht.) “In the end he dropped his argument.”
Cultural note
Persian has a rich vocabulary for describing persistence and its opposite, partly because Iranian culture places high value on پشتکار (poshtkâr, perseverance) while also prizing the wisdom of knowing when to stop. دست برداشتن carries a slightly resigned tone: it suggests you are releasing something you genuinely wanted. In everyday speech it appears constantly in family arguments, work negotiations, and romantic contexts. The phrase دست از سرم بردار (dast az saram bardâr, literally lift your hand from my head) is a sharper, more frustrated version meaning get off my case.