Etymology

The vomit sense is a clipping of throw up one's accountsCategory:English clippings#THROWUP (18th century), from earlier idiom cast up one's accounts (15th century).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#THROWUP

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#THROWUP

Verb

throw up (third-person singular simple present throws up, present participle throwing up, simple past threw up, past participle thrown up)Category:English lemmas#THROWUPCategory:English verbs#THROWUPCategory:English phrasal verbs#THROWUPCategory:English phrasal verbs formed with %22up%22#THROWUPCategory:English multiword terms#THROWUPCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#THROWUPCategory:Pages with entries#THROW%20UPCategory:Pages with 1 entry#THROW%20UP

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see throw,‎ up.
   • 1823, Clement Clarke Moore, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas:

     Away to the window I flew like a flash,
     Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

   • 1910, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Devil's Foot:

     The servant (who) had first entered had thrown up the window […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
2. (ambitransitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THROWUPCategory:English intransitive verbs#THROWUP, now informalCategory:English informal terms#THROWUP, bacteriologyCategory:en:Bacteria#THROWUP) To vomit.

   The baby threw up all over my shirt.Category:English terms with usage examples#THROWUP

   That cat is always throwing up hairballs.Category:English terms with usage examples#THROWUP

   • 1988 September 19, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic):

     I wonder what happens if you throw up in zero gravity.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THROWUP) To produce or reveal something new or unexpected.

   This system has thrown up a few problems.Category:English terms with usage examples#THROWUP

4. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THROWUP) To cause something such as dust or water to rise into the air.

   The car wheels threw up a shower of stones.Category:English terms with usage examples#THROWUP

6. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THROWUP, chiefly datedCategory:English dated terms#THROWUP) To erect, particularly hastily.

   Synonyms: run up (dated), knock up; throw together, knock together, slap together

   Coordinate term: whip up

   • 1872, Every Saturday, page 96:

     Every depression in the ground had been utilized; every rise taken advantage of, to dig rifle-pits or throw up a little earthwork, surrounded with sand-bags […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 2001, Diane Kennedy, Loop-Holes of the Rich: How the Rich Legally Make More Money & Pay Less Tax, Warner Books,, →ISBN, page 70:

     In other words, a business can throw up a huge detour sign in the way of the government.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

   • 2007, Marissa Monteilh, Dr. Feelgood, Kensington Books, →ISBN, page 27:

     The deal was that if anyone started catching feelings, he could throw up a stop sign and the other would honor it.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

7. (ambitransitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THROWUPCategory:English intransitive verbs#THROWUP) To give up, abandon something.
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities:

     “No!” returned the spy. “I throw up. I confess that we were so unpopular with the outrageous mob, that I only got away from England at the risk of being ducked to death, and that Cly was so ferreted up and down, that he never would have got away at all but for that sham. Though how this man knows it was a sham, is a wonder of wonders to me.”

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

   • 2011, Alan Bennett, “Baffled at a Bookcase”, in London Review of Books, XXXIII.15:

     In 1944, believing, as people in Leeds tended to do, that flying bombs or no flying bombs, things were better Down South, Dad threw up his job with the Co-op and we migrated to Guildford.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

8. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THROWUP) To display a gang sign using the hands.
   • 2005, Brandon Bennett, Moon in Gemini, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 56:

     Why don't you go on and throw up ya gang sign. Represent your hood, homey?

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

9. (datedCategory:English dated terms#THROWUP, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THROWUP) To enlarge, as a picture reflected on a screen.
10. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#THROWUP, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#THROWUP, printingCategory:en:Printing#THROWUP) To give special prominence to a line or lines.

Noun

throw up (uncountable)Category:English lemmas#THROWUPCategory:English nouns#THROWUPCategory:English uncountable nouns#THROWUPCategory:English uncountable nouns#THROWUPCategory:English multiword terms#THROWUPCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#THROWUPCategory:Pages with entries#THROW%20UPCategory:Pages with 1 entry#THROW%20UP

1. (colloquialCategory:English colloquialisms#THROWUP) Misspelling of throwup (“vomit”)Category:English misspellings#THROWUP.

   We had to scrub the seats for throw up when we left the dog in the car.Category:English terms with usage examples#THROWUP

Interjection

throw upCategory:English lemmas#THROWUPCategory:English interjections#THROWUPCategory:English multiword terms#THROWUPCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#THROWUPCategory:Pages with entries#THROW%20UPCategory:Pages with 1 entry#THROW%20UP

1. (dismissalCategory:English dismissals#THROWUP) Used as an expression of frustration or to dismiss a conversation partner.
   • 2011, Kate Cann, Consumed:

     "Oh, throw up," thought Rayne. "Don't say they've taken a fancy to each other."

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

   • 2018, Hillary Homzie, Apple Pie Promises, Sky Pony Press:

     Oh, throw up. Really? Since when does Hannah need to be rescued by anyone for anything?

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

   • 2020 December 10, @SherK50662136, X‎:

     Oh throw up... Biden & Harris are both losers.

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

   • 2022 March 22, @Bandwagonfan9, X‎:

     Oh throw up. Pringle is better than Hardman. Chiefs done for a long ass time

     Category:English terms with quotations#THROWUP

See also

• throw down

Anagrams

• upthrow