Word.ws English Dictionary

chucking up the sponge

chucking up the sponge is the present participle and gerund of chuck up the sponge.

Meaning of chuck up the sponge

Verb

chuck up the sponge (third-person singular simple present chucks up the sponge, present participle chucking up the sponge, simple past and past participle chucked up the sponge)

  1. (dated) To quit; to give up; to admit defeat.
    • The fighting spirit of the German army is supplied by the officer and N. C. O. It has been proved that when a German soldier sees his bayonet his fighting value is finished — he "chucks up the sponge."1916, Pamphlets on the European War - Volume 26, page 10

Questions about chucking up the sponge

What is chucking up the sponge the present participle and gerund of?
Chucking up the sponge is the present participle and gerund of chuck up the sponge.

Words near chucking up the sponge in the dictionary

  1. chucking one's toys out of the cot
  2. chucking out
  3. chucking over
  4. chucking the deuces
  5. chucking up
  6. chucking up the sponge
  7. chucking-out time
  8. chuckingly
  9. chuckings
  10. chuckla
  11. chucklaes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chucking up the sponge (page history and authors); chuck up the sponge (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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