Word.ws English Dictionary

throwdown

throwdown noun: a fall, indicating defeat.

Noun

throwdown (plural throwdowns)

  1. (slang) A fall, indicating defeat.
  2. (rare, slang) A weapon planted at a crime scene in order to mislead investigation, especially in situations where deadly force would only have been justified if the victim were armed. Also an untraceable weapon kept in readiness for such use.
    • The inquiry also found evidence some Australian troops in Afghanistan carried "throwdowns" — such as weapons, radios and grenades not issued by the ADF — which would be planted next to the bodies of Afghan civilians to suggest they were a "legitimate target" in any post-incident investigations.2020 November 19, Matthew Doran, “Afghanistan war crimes report released by Defence Chief Angus Campbell includes evidence of 39 murders by special forces”, in ABC News, Australian Broadcasting...
  3. (slang) A slam dunk.
  4. (slang) A fight or brawl; or, a challenge or incitement to fight.
  5. (slang) A performance by a rapper or DJ that is intended to be particularly hardcore or intense.
    • a hip-hop throwdown
  6. (slang, hardcore punk music) A type of hardcore dance in which a person violently clears a space for himself and appears to be ready to fight those around him, while making violent and erratic movements with his body.
  7. (Australia, informal) A 250 ml bottle of beer.
  8. (Australia) A type of small firework that explodes with a loud noise when thrown violently onto the ground.
    Synonyms:
    bang snap

Synonyms of throwdown

Forms of throwdown

pluralthrowdowns
alternative formthrow-down

Origin of throwdown

Deverbal from throw down. Fight and music senses from earlier idiom throw down the gauntlet (“issue a challenge”).

Questions about throwdown

What does throwdown mean?
Throwdown means a fall, indicating defeat.
What part of speech is throwdown?
Throwdown is a noun.
What is the plural of throwdown?
The plural of throwdown is throwdowns.

Words near throwdown in the dictionary

  1. throwboards
  2. throwbot
  3. throwbots
  4. throwbox
  5. throwboxes
  6. throwdown
  7. throwdowns
  8. throwe
  9. throwed
  10. throwee
  11. throwees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throwdown (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-throwdown.ogg.

Cite this entry: “throwdown.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/throwdown. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.