throw in the towel
"throw-in-the-towel" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“throw in the towel” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To quit; to give up.
Corpus desk
Index EN-throw-in-the-towel · throw in the towel · English
throw in the towel · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | throw in the towel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “throw in the towel” in English
Rare enough to double-check
throw in the towel is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To quit; to give up.".
Zero misspellings are on record for throw in the towel in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the traditional signal from a boxer's support staff of throwing such an item into a boxing ring to indicate that the contestant cannot continue the match and is forfeiting to the opponent. The correct English form is throw in the towel, spelled T-H-R-O-W- -I-N- -T-H-E- -T-O-W-E-L.
Definition
- 1To quit; to give up.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how throw in the towel appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
If their restaurant can't get business even on Mother's Day, it might be time for them to throw in the towel.
In short, there was so much space and so many things to shove things behind that most people, called on to find a silver cow-creamer there, would have said “Oh, what's the use?” and thrown in the towel.
Etymology
From the traditional signal from a boxer's support staff of throwing such an item into a boxing ring to indicate that the contestant cannot continue the match and is forfeiting to the opponent.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.