Definition
To give up a contest; to acknowledge defeat; to throw in the towel.
Origins
From a custom of the boxing ring, the person employed to sponge a pugilist between rounds throwing his sponge in the air in token of defeat.
In Context
- "But he was too brave a man to throw up the sponge to fate, and had work to do yet."
- "At a time when official railway operators throw up the sponge for much less reason, it seems that only voluntary enthusiasm would ever contemplate the task at all."