You once linked with doing nothing may be giving up (8)
I believe the answer is:
yielding
'be giving up' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
I don't understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for yielding that I've seen before include "surrender" , "Bearing" , "Soft, rather than rigid" , "Amenable" , "Succumbing" .)