Throw

Throw

Verb & Noun · /θrəʊ/ · to propel with force; to add quickly; to cause confusion or error

Definition

To throw is to propel something through the air with your hand and arm. That is the core meaning. But throw is far more versatile than it looks. You can throw a party, throw a punch, throw shade, throw doubt on something, throw a switch, or throw an error. Each use carries the sense of a sudden, forceful release — something leaves your hands and becomes someone else's problem, or the world's. As a noun, a throw is the act itself, or the distance something is thrown.

Origin

From Old English þrāwan, meaning to twist, turn, or writhe — not originally about projectiles at all. The older Old English word for throwing was weorpan, which has since vanished from the language entirely. Þrāwan gradually took over the meaning of propulsion, while retaining a ghost of its twisting origin in the way we naturally spiral our arm when throwing a ball. By Middle English it had become throwen and then throw, fully settled in its modern sense.