# throw in the towel

Pronunciation: say "THROH in thuh TOW-uhl" US /ˌθɹoʊ ɪn ðə ˈtaʊəl/, UK /ˌθɹəʊ ɪn ðə ˈtaʊəl/; AUS say "throh in dhuh TOW-uhl"

## Idiom

1. To give up or admit defeat, abandoning an effort that no longer seems worth continuing.
   - Simple: To stop trying because something is too hard, and accept that you have failed.
   - _When the negotiations stalled for the fifth time, the union finally threw in the towel._
   - _She refused to throw in the towel even after losing most of her funding._

## Origin

The phrase comes from boxing, where a fighter's support staff would traditionally throw a towel into the ring to signal that their contestant could not continue the match and was forfeiting to the opponent.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/throw-in-the-towel (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).