cede the field

• yield the field

cede the field (third-person singular simple present cedes the field, present participle ceding the field, simple past and past participle ceded the field)

1. (military) To withdraw from a military confrontation; to yield control of a battlefield to one's opponent.
2. (idiomatic, by extension) To withdraw from any confrontational or potentially confrontational situation; to avoid participating in a competition or contest.
   • 1994 February 27, Sylvia Nasar, “The American Economy, Back on Top”, in New York Times, retrieved 8 August 2019:

     In some smokestack industries—steel, machine tools and especially cars—the choice was to raise productivity and quality a lot or cede the field to the competition, as American companies did in consumer electronics.

   • 2003 September 10, Judy Woodruff, McClintock: "I'm in this race right to the finish line"‎, CNN, retrieved 23 September 2019:

     State Senator McClintock appeared on CNN's Inside Politics on Tuesday and told me he had no intention of following Ueberroth's lead and ceding the field to Schwarzenegger: "I'm in this race right to the finish line."

   • 2013 June 24, Jean-Louis Gassée, “Microsoft and Nokia won't beget a Google-Motorola clone”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 12 August 2019:

     And what will happen to Windows Phone? […] One can't imagine that Ballmer will call it a day and cede the field to Google and Apple.

• give ground

• chicken out
• turn tail