Etymology
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From the traditional signal from a boxer's support staff of throwing such an item into a boxing ring to indicate that the contestant cannot continue the match and is forfeiting to the opponent.
Pronunciation
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throw in the towel (third-person singular simple present throws in the towel, present participle throwing in the towel, simple past threw in the towel, past participle thrown in the towel)
- (idiomatic) To quit; to give up.
If their restaurant can't get business even on Mother's Day, it might be time for them to throw in the towel.
1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VIII:In short, there was so much space and so many things to shove things behind that most people, called on to find a silver cow-creamer there, would have said “Oh, what's the use?” and thrown in the towel.
Synonyms
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Translations
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(idiomatic) to quit; to give up
- Catalan: llançar la tovallola, tirar la tovallola
- Czech: hodit flintu do žita (cs)
- Danish: kaste håndklædet i ringen, smide håndklædet i ringen (da)
- Dutch: de handdoek in de ring werpen (nl)
- Estonian: alla andma
- Finnish: heittää pyyhe kehään
- French: jeter l’éponge (fr), jeter la serviette (fr), jeter le manche après la cognée (fr)
- German: das Handtuch werfen (de), die Flinte ins Korn werfen (de)
- Hungarian: bedobja a törülközőt
- Icelandic: leggja árar í bát, springa á limminu, henda inn handklæðinu
- Indonesian: melempar handuk
- Irish: do hata a chaitheamh leis, an tuáille a chaitheamh isteach, do lámh a chaitheamh i bpaca
- Italian: gettare la spugna, gettare le armi
- Japanese: 匙を投げる (さじをなげる, saji o nageru), お手上げ (おてあげ, oteage)
- Norwegian: kaste inn håndkledet (no)
- Polish: rozkładać ręce impf, rozłożyć ręce pf
- Portuguese: jogar a toalha
- Russian: подня́ть бе́лый флаг pf (podnjátʹ bélyj flag), опусти́ть ру́ки (ru) pf (opustítʹ rúki), сда́ться (ru) pf (sdátʹsja), призна́ть своё пораже́ние (priznátʹ svojó poražénije), призна́ть себя́ побежде́нным (priznátʹ sebjá pobeždénnym), сложи́ть ору́жие (složítʹ orúžije)
- Scottish Gaelic: leig an saoghal leis an t-sruth
- Serbo-Croatian: baciti pušku u šaš
- Slovak: hadzať flintu do žita
- Slovene: vreči puško v koruzo
- Spanish: tirar la toalla (es), botar la toalla
- Swedish: kasta in handduken (sv), kasta yxan i sjön (sv) (literally “throw the axe into the lake”)
- Turkish: havlu atmak (tr)
- Welsh: rhoi ffidl yn y to
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See also
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