throw up one's hands
"throw-up-one-s-hands" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“throw up one's hands” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 20
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To raise both hands in the air in an exasperated manner.
Corpus desk
Index EN-throw-up-one-s-hands · throw up one's hands · English
throw up one's hands · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 20 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 up one's hands |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 20 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “throw up one's hands” in English
Rare enough to double-check
throw up one's hands is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for throw up one's hands in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is throw up one's hands, spelled T-H-R-O-W- -U-P- -O-N-E-'-S- -H-A-N-D-S.
Definition
- 1To raise both hands in the air in an exasperated manner.
- 2To cease an attempt because it is perceived as doomed.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how throw up one's hands appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I see it warn't a bit of use to try to go ahead—I'd got to throw up my hands.
I wanted to throw up my hands and say, "Thanks. See ya." But I couldn't walk away.
Synonyms
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.