throw up one's hands
throw up one's hands verb: to raise both hands in the air in an exasperated manner.
Verb
throw up one's hands (third-person singular simple present throws up one's hands, present participle throwing up one's hands, simple past threw up one's hands, past participle thrown up one's hands)
- To raise both hands in the air in an exasperated manner.
- To cease an attempt because it is perceived as doomed.
- I see it warn't a bit of use to try to go ahead—I'd got to throw up my hands.1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC
- I wanted to throw up my hands and say, "Thanks. See ya." But I couldn't walk away.2001, James Patterson, Cradle and All, Warner Books, →ISBN, page 58
- Synonyms:
- give up, throw in the towel
Synonyms of throw up one's hands
Forms of throw up one's hands
| third-person singular present | throws up one's hands |
|---|---|
| present participle | throwing up one's hands |
| past | threw up one's hands |
| past participle | thrown up one's hands |
Questions about throw up one's hands
- What does throw up one's hands mean?
- Throw up one's hands means to raise both hands in the air in an exasperated manner.
- What part of speech is throw up one's hands?
- Throw up one's hands is a verb.
- What is the past tense of throw up one's hands?
- The past tense of throw up one's hands is threw up one's hands.
Words near throw up one's hands in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: throw up one's hands (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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