throw up

WOTD – 2 August 2011    

English

Pronunciation

Audio (US)

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Verb

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

1. Used other than as an idiom: see throw,‎ up.
2. (now colloquial) To vomit.

   The baby threw up all over my shirt.

   That cat is always throwing up hairballs.

3. To produce something new or unexpected.

   This system has thrown up a few problems.

4. To cause something such as dust or water to rise into the air.

   The car wheels threw up a shower of stones.

5. To erect, particularly hastily.
   • 2001, Diane Kennedy, Loop-Holes of the Rich: How the Rich Legally Make More Money & Pay Less Tax, Warner Books, ISBN 0446678325, page 70,

     In other words, a business can throw up a huge detour sign in the way of the government.

   • 2007, Marissa Monteilh, Dr. Feelgood, Kensington Books, ISBN 0758211228, page 27,

     The deal was that if anyone started catching feelings, he could throw up a stop sign and the other would honor it.

6. To give up, abandon (something).
   • 2011, Alan Bennett, "Baffled at a Bookcase", London Review of Books, XXXIII.15:

     In 1944, believing, as people in Leeds tended to do, that flying bombs or no flying bombs, things were better Down South, Dad threw up his job with the Co-op and we migrated to Guildford.

7. To display a gang sign using the hands
   • 2005, Brandon Bennett, Moon in Gemini, iUniverse, ISBN 059536442X, page 56,

     Why don't you go on and throw up ya gang sign. Represent your hood, homey?

Synonyms

• (vomit): chuck up, hurl, upchuck (colloquial); vomit

Translations

to vomit — see vomit

to produce something new or unexpected

• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

to cause something such as dust or water to rise into the air

• Spanish: levantar (es)

to erect, particularly hastily

• Spanish: construir rápidamente y mal (es)

to give up, abandon

• Russian: оставить (ru) (ostávitʹ)  pf., бросить (ru) (brósitʹ)  pf., отказаться (ru) (otkazátʹsja)  pf.

• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

to display a gang sign using the hands

• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

Noun

throw up (uncountable)

1. (colloquial) Vomit.
   • We had to scrub the seats for throw up when we left the dog in the car.

Alternative forms

• throwup, throw-up

See also

• throw down

Anagrams

• upthrow