Word.ws English Dictionary

throw in one's hand

throw in one's hand verb: to stop attempting to do something; to give up.

Verb

throw in one's hand (third-person singular simple present throws in one's hand, present participle throwing in one's hand, simple past threw in one's hand, past participle thrown in one's hand)

  1. To stop attempting to do something; to give up.
    • The outcome was that the contractor threw in his hand, and the work was completed by the company's own engineer for the area.1954 August, H. M. Madgwick, “The Blaenau Festiniog Tunnel”, in Railway Magazine, page 569

Forms of throw in one's hand

third-person singular presentthrows in one's hand
present participlethrowing in one's hand
pastthrew in one's hand
past participlethrown in one's hand
alternative formthrow one's hand

Origin of throw in one's hand

throw + hand

Questions about throw in one's hand

What does throw in one's hand mean?
Throw in one's hand means to stop attempting to do something; to give up.
What part of speech is throw in one's hand?
Throw in one's hand is a verb.
What is the past tense of throw in one's hand?
The past tense of throw in one's hand is threw in one's hand.

Words near throw in one's hand in the dictionary

  1. throw gasoline on the fire
  2. throw good money after bad
  3. throw hands
  4. throw in
  5. throw in at the deep end
  6. throw in one's hand
  7. throw in one's lot with
  8. throw in the bark
  9. throw in the cards
  10. throw in the sponge
  11. throw in the towel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throw in one's hand (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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