throw , v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

throw v.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

throw... (v.)

see also under relevant n.

throw a benny (v.)

(UK juv.) to lose one’s temper, to throw a tantrum.

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 bennyadj. derog. [...] (2) get very angry i.e. ‘throw a benny.’.

throw a (big) brick (v.) [the throwing of a brick through a shop window]

1. (US black) to act violently, to kill someone.

1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1999) 249: I knew I had to go on and throw just one big brick – kill myself, take an overdose, or something.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 50: brick, throw a big [...] (2) to do something violent.

2. (US) to commit a minor crime.

1969

R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 50: brick, throw a big (1) to commit a crime.

3. in a ball game, to blunder, to fail.

2004

T. Winton ‘Defender’ in Turning (2005) 300: My lay-ups were rubbish [...] I’d pound down the court, sick with dread, knowing that I was gonna throw a brick.

throw a buttonhole on (v.) [pun on butt n.¹ (1a) + hole n.¹ (1a)]

(US black) to have anal intercourse.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 158: A sizable vocabulary is associated with [anal intercourse...] (to ask for/buy the ring, to take on some backs, to throw a buttonhole on someone).

throw a charge (v.)

(Aus.) to be found not guilty.

1950

S.J. Baker in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/2: Then there’s ‘throw a charge,’ to escape sentence, to be found not guilty.

throw a maddie (v.) [SE mad]

to go mad, to go crazy.

1973

(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 231: Crack up – to go mad, ‘throw a maddie.’.

throw a punch (v.) [boxing imagery]

to defend oneself, verbally as well as physically.

1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 304: While Sam Yudenow was hurling all the invective and doing a species of belligerent tap dance, Copper Baldwin was throwing most of the punches.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

throw a scare into (v.)

to terrorize, to intimidate.

1894		Cttee Police Dept. City of New York 1631: Q. What has occurred in those cases? A. Well, they throw a scare into him there. Q. The police throw a scare into him? A Yes, sir .
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 211: If you find one who won’t take a jolly, throw a scare into him and pay him with that.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job (2007) 6: No lawyer can throw a scare into me just by askin’ me to call.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 127: If I get insistent and demand it all at once, he throws a scare into me.
1939		R. Chandler ‘Trouble Is My Business’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 204: You might throw a scare into him.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 46: He was not throwing any scare into me.
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 149: I’m only goin’ to throw a scare into the guy if he gets cocky.
1957		‘Ed Lacy’ Lead With Your Left (1958) 54: Somebody has been trying to throw a scare into her.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 44: I might’ve thrown a scare into the two rotten-faced tearaways tinkering with a motorbike three lamp posts down.

throw a thing in someone’s dish (v.) (also throw a thing in someone’s teeth) [? the image of tossing something other than money into a beggar’s dish]

to tease, to reproach.

1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: To throw a thing in one’s dish; to reproach or twit one with any particular matter.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1894		G.F. Northall Folk-Phrases of Four Counties 31: To throw a thing in one’s teeth/dish = To reproach.

throwaway

see separate entries.

throw back (v.)

(US) to eat or drink, esp. in quantity.

1943		Mass-Observation Report on Juvenile Drinking 3: Yes, of course I drink beer. You should have been at my brother’s wedding, we didn’t half throw it back.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 62: I ordered a third martini and threw it back.
2001		cwnews ‘Events’ in Eye on CameraWare III Apr. 🌐 I entered a couple of communities and threw back a couple of glasses of eel juice, just to get a make on the place.
2012		S. Blass Pirate for Life xi: [A] ‘smoker’ at a VFW Hall, filled to capacity with salt-of-the-earth, blue-collared men throwing back beer in plastic cups and chewing on dirty-water dogs.

throw bouquets at (v.)

(US) to praise.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 June 24/3: Uncle Sam’s scrapper does throw bouquets at himself.
1905		A. Adams Outlet 230: Quince [...] threw bouquets at me regarding my ability always to find water [DA].
1912		Amer. Jrnl Clinical Medicine 19 650/1: We are altogether too busy to contract megalocephalia — too desirous of accomplishing things to have time to throw bouquets at ourselves!
1923		W. Rogers in N.Y. Times 6 May sect. 8 2: Now I don’t want to make any play for favor, or throw Bouquets at myself but just want to show you the kind of a Patriot I am.
1949		F. Brown Dead Ringer 151: But hell, let’s quit throwing bouquets at each other and have a drink instead.

throw bricks at the jailhouse (v.)

to take foolish chances, to tempt fate.

1968

N. Heard Howard Street 83: He could stop throwing so many bricks at the jailhouse and lie back in the shade, cooling it.

throw craps (v.) (also throw crap) [craps jargon craps, a losing throw] (US)

1. to fail.

1908

K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl 37: Providence has got to throw something besides ‘crap’ some time or other.

2. to experience bad luck.

1957

H. Simmons Corner Boy 115: It’s O.K., baby, I just threw craps.

throw donuts (v.)

see blow doughnuts under blow v.¹

throw down

see separate entries.

throw ’em (v.)

see throw hands under hand n.¹

throw-in (n.)

see separate entry.

throw in and in (v.)

see play (at) in and in under play (at)... v.

throw iron (v.)

see pump iron under iron n.

throw it (v.)

see separate entry.

throw it (into) (v.)

see separate entry.

throw off

see separate entries.

throw off (upon) (v.)

see separate entry.

throw on (v.)

see throw down on under throw down v.

throw one’s feet (v.)

(US) to walk.

1917

Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 12 May 12/1: ‘As it wuz snowin’ I didn’t feel much like t’rowin’ me feet’.

throw one’s science about (v.)

(Aus.) var. on SE throw one’s weight about.

1902

Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Dec. 36/2: Yer see, [...] when a bloke breaks up over ’is girl yer don’t want ter go near ’im, ’n’ yer want to keep ’er away from ’im, too, coz when she starts squarin’ ’im ’e only gets worse and finishes up by gettin’ drunk. Then next mornin’ ’e fetches 40 bob for heavin’ his science about ’n’ tearin’ a uniform.

throw one’s voice (v.)

(Aus.) to vomit.

1963–74

B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 21: If you want to throw your voice, mate / You won’t have any choice / But to chunder in the old Pacific Sea.

throw out (v.)

see throw down on under throw down v.

throw shade (v.) (also shade) [? to ‘put in the shade’]

(orig. US gay) to humiliate (someone) exceedingly.

1985		people.com 13 May 🌐 Watch Madonna Sip Wine, Eat Cold Pizza – and Throw Shade at Drake.
1993		Lerner et al. Dict. of Today’s Words 155: Shade – to subject to verbal abuse, criticism, or scorn; throw shade.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 16: These slang items seem just as fresh and viable as 1992’s [...] throw shade for ‘humiliate exceedingly.’.
2013		jezebel.com 8 Jan. 🌐 [headline] Mariah Carey Throws Major Shade at Nicki Minaj During Barbara Walters Interview.
2013		salon.com 28 Jan. 🌐 Has ‘shade-throwing’ — the sort of sly, cutting insults that, coincidentally, tend to clock in under 140 characters — become a national pastime?
2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 Fall 7: THROW SHADE — pass judgment on someone, insult: ‘She threw her ex-boyfriend some major shade when he showed up at the party with a new girl’ Also DISS.

throw sixes (v.) [craps dice, a throw of twelve (double six) is a losing throw]

to die.

1936

L. Pound ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 200: Threw sixes.

throw someone for (v.)

(Aus.) to cheat, to swindle; to persuade someone to give up something.

1950

‘No. 35’ Argot in G. Simes DAUS (1993).

throw someone out on their arse (v.) (also ...ear)

(Aus./US) to eject someone forcibly.

1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Dec. 13/1: Yet States may sober grow – / Soda to rum succeed – / And so we had to throw / Out on his ear – George Reid.
1938		R. Chandler ‘The King in Yellow’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 88: The greaseball went up in the world and threw her out on her ear for a red-headed torcher.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 98: My brother didn’t exactly get out of school — he was thrown out on his big fat arse.

throw someone out with (v.)

(US drugs) to give someone some drugs, usu. pills.

1972		E. Folb Urban Black Argot 146: Throw Me Out With... give me a marijuana cigarette, pills, money, etc.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 169: A common way of asking someone for a given quantity of pills was to say throw me out with or kick me down/out with or lay me down with (an ace, deuce, roll).

throw someone over the bridge (v.) [the image is of two confederates getting together to throw a third party from a (metaphorical) bridge]

(UK Und.) to double-cross, to betray (a confidence); in gambling, to deceive one’s backer by deliberately losing the game.

1812

Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 229: bridge: to bridge a person, or throw him over the bridge, is, in a general sense, to deceive him by betraying the confidence he has reposed in you, and instead of serving him faithfully, to involve him in ruin or disgrace; or, three men being concerned alike in any transaction, two of them will form a collusion to bridge the third, and engross to themselves all the advantage which may eventually accrue. [...] Among gamblers, it means deceiving the person who had back’d you, by wilfully losing the game; the money so lost by him being shared between yourself and your confederates who had laid against you.

throw someone up in the air (v.)

(Aus.) to have sexual intercourse.

1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 161: He told Norton [...] how many sheilas he was throwing up in the air.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] Les was one hundred per cent certain he wasn’t going to throw Blythe up in the air. No one ever got rooted in an Agatha Christie novel.

throw something at (v.)

(US) to attempt to solve or dismiss a problem with an excess of some resource.

2002		Guardian 29 July 🌐 Others suggested the government was so determined to make its plans for the three 750-place centres work that it was prepared to throw money at the schemes rather than back down.
2003		Guardian 24 Oct. 🌐 On Wednesday they were happy to be patient. They still got forward when they could but didn’t have to throw men at it after scoring early on and were content like that.

throw the house out of the windows (v.)

see under house n.¹

throw up

see separate entries.

throw up one’s cards (v.)

see throw down one’s cards under throw down v.