Word.ws English Dictionary

thrown away the key

thrown away the key is the past participle of throw away the key.

Meaning of throw away the key

Verb

throw away the key (third-person singular simple present throws away the key, present participle throwing away the key, simple past threw away the key, past participle thrown away the key)

  1. (idiomatic, slang) To never release someone (e.g., from prison).
    • Let's get these men together in a room and I would suggest feed them bread and water and throw away the key until they come together1995 November 19, “Senators Pete Domenici and John Breaux Discuss the Shutdown of the Federal Government”, in CBS Face Nation

Questions about thrown away the key

What is thrown away the key the past participle of?
Thrown away the key is the past participle of throw away the key.

Words near thrown away the key in the dictionary

  1. thrown about
  2. thrown an ant into a sty
  3. thrown an eye
  4. thrown aside
  5. thrown away
  6. thrown away the key
  7. thrown back
  8. thrown by
  9. thrown caution to the wind
  10. thrown cold water on
  11. thrown down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thrown away the key (page history and authors); throw away the key (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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