Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a defeat.

1905

A. Binstead Mop Fair 116: None were quite bold enough to risk a throw-down.

2. a rejection; the termination of a relationship.

1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 56: De Duchess is fraid dat [...] de nurse will swipe little Miss Fannie and de Duchess will get de trow-down for not bein dere.
1904		C. Connors Bowery Life [ebook] ere's sum t'ings er bloke can't git out uv his nut fer er long time. Wun uv dem, is w'ere a bundle he is stuck on gives him de merry laugh—yer know, de t'row down, de dinky-dink.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 145: That dame with the rhinestone joolry who tried to butt in and get in our set, and got a throw-down.
1914		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 13 Apr. [synd. cartoon] Huh —all the way from Newark to be stood up. Said he knew every press agent in town and this is the 5th throwdown.

3. (US) in a context outside relationships, a rebuttal.

1900

Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Nov. 11/3: Another wise mug on the papers Insisted that he was up at Muldoon’s, but the arrival of the Teutonic [...] gave a throwdown to the Muldoon story, for McCoy was aboard.

4. (Aus./US, also throwaway) of a weapon, carried by the police to plant at the scene of a police shooting or other use of force to bolster their claim that the force was justified; usu. a gun but occas. used of other weapons, or illegal items (see cites 1967, 1987, 1996) aimed at misdirection; thus attrib.

1967		R. Conot Rivers of Blood 174: ‘Okay!’ Lawrence said, moving toward their patrol car. ‘Let’s go get ’em. I’ve got my throwaway knife all ready.’ The ‘throwaway knife’ is a standard inside joke on the force—you carry an extra knife on you to ‘throw away’ next to a suspect if you accidentally, or not-so-accidentally, shoot him, so as to make it appear that he has been shot during an attempted assault.
1987		Odessa American (TX) 6 Nov. 9/4: Hildebrand testified about conversations [...] on ‘philosophical aspects if you will of thrown-down guns, or throw-down marijuana or throw-down anything’.
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] The gun was a .22 target pistol. Bax had confiscated it [...] thinking he’d need it as a throwdown one day, something to cover himself with if he ever happened to shoot an unarmed man.
1996		(con. mid-1960s) J. Lardner Crusader 57: Veteran cops advised rookies to carry throwaway knives—knives intended for planting on people.
1998		K. Anderson Night Dogs 25: The kind of junk weapons half the cops at North carried in their briefcases, ‘throwdown guns’ just in case they shot someone who wasn’t armed after all.
2012		M. Wilkerson ‘A Clean White Sun’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] Two clean throwdown pieces sit next to a battered gold shield.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] There was no way he was going to sit in his vehicle and take a bullet, have a throwdown tossed onto his lap, or be loaded with something else.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] The throwaway pistol and his registered side-arm lay on the seat beside a box of shells.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘Maybe we’ll do you here, and drop a throwdown in his club. Take care of two shittums in one day’.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 184: [T]here was Gooch, aiming a Browning pistol at Swann’s belly. Not his service weapon, but a throwdown.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 9: I placed the throwdown piece in his right hand.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 10: He planted throwdown guns on those beaners he blew up.