# What does ‘throw in the towel’ mean?

To “throw in the towel” means to give up; concede. Brewer's-era boxing gave us this idiom, in which a seconds' towel thrown into the ring conceded defeat for the boxer.

## What it means

- Brewer's-era boxing gave us this idiom, in which a seconds' towel thrown into the ring conceded defeat for the boxer.

## Action steps

1. Common in competitive and workplace contexts.
2. Example: After the fifth rejection he threw in the towel.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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Published: 2026-07-18T04:16:36.488647+00:00
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