Asked by: Hongfen Begue
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What does the phrase throw in the towel mean?

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throw in the towel. To give up on some endeavor; to quit or abandon something; to admit defeat or failure. I think I'm ready to throw in the towel. After trying their hand in the mobile market for just a few years, the company is already throwing in the towel after finding very little success.


Similarly, it is asked, what does it mean when someone says throw in the towel?

throw in the towel. To quit in defeat. The phrase comes from boxing, in which a fighter indicates surrender by throwing a towel into the ring: “After losing the election, he threw in the towel on his political career.”

Additionally, is throw in the towel a metaphor? The idiom “throw in the towel” is, of course, a boxing reference to when a fighter's manager throws a towel in the ring to stop a bout and cede the match. The phrase is almost always used as a metaphor for giving up.

Also to know is, where does the expression throw in the towel come from?

Origin Of 'Throw In The Towel' The common phrase 'throw in the towel' is believed to come from boxing, where the coach, or perhaps a teammate, would literally throw a towel into the ring in order to signal that his fighter has been defeated; it was basically a way to surrender.

What does the idiom all at once mean?

phrase. If something happens all at once, it happens suddenly, often when you are not expecting it to happen. All at once there was someone knocking on the door.

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