Throw in the Towel

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Linda calling from North Miami Beach, Florida.

Hello, Linda in North Miami Beach. Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

I was listening to a talk show the other day, and a man was describing his work environment. He said that he’d been giving a challenging task that he’d found very frustrating, and he said he considered throwing in the towel. It turned out he didn’t do that after all. He completed the task. But it made me wonder about the origin of that phrase.

Of throwing in the towel.

Yes.

So I gather from what you said that you understood that to mean giving up. Would you use that expression, throw in the towel, in that way?

I think that is how I use it, yes.

Yeah.

Yes, it’s a kind of confusing metaphor until you understand the history of this expression. Because back in the old days, when a boxer’s team wanted to stop a fight because the guy was getting beaten up too much, they would take a towel and throw it into the ring or throw it up in the air as a signal of surrender.

And if you picture boxing back in the late 19th century, you know, it was a really noisy affair, unruly and really violent. And often the rings were not elevated. And so, you know, everybody was on the same level and throwing in a towel was a very picturesque way of letting everybody know that it was all over for this guy.

And so they use the expression throw in the towel or chuck in the towel or sling in the towel. Sometimes they would talk about shoot in the towel. I’m going to shoot in the towel and get this guy out of the ring.

But what’s really interesting, Linda, is that it goes back to an even older expression that involves a sponge, because before they threw in towels, they would throw in sponges. So the expression was throw up the sponge or chuck up the sponge or fling up the sponge or toss in the sponge. All of those were a signal of defeat, a very visual signal that let everybody know over the noise and the unruliness that it was all over.

How about that?

It goes back to boxing.

That’s interesting.

That’s interesting. And I have to say that my husband will be very happy because he told me that was the origin. And I argued and said, I thought there might be something more historic than that that you would reveal. So this is a small victory for him.

Oh, it was.

And you’re throwing in the towel, it sounds like.

I am apparently throwing in the towel on this one. It’s nice, but it’s nice to have a bit of color to it. So often with these expressions, we don’t know where they came from.

But can you imagine just this bloody wet sponge flinging into the ring? A moment ago, it was wiping the cut and bloody brow of a boxer, and now it’s declaring defeat for that boxer. It’s vivid. It’s striking.

Yeah, it’s very vivid. Quite dramatic. And I think now if I’m using it, I will think of the drama that’s involved with it.

Thank you so much for explaining that.

Yeah, sure.

And thank you so much for your call. We appreciate it. Linda, take care of yourself. Hi to your husband.

You too.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Yeah, thank you.

Bye-bye.

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