throw up one's hands
Meaning: To show that one gives up, in despair or frustration.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The teacher threw up her hands when the projector broke again.”
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: The gesture of raising both hands in surrender or exasperation. The phrase is common from the 19th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Polish: rozłożyć ręce — literally: to lay down one's hands
More idioms — Body & Senses
- lose one's head — To stop thinking clearly because of panic, anger or passion.
- lose face — To lose respect or be humiliated in public.
- shoulder the burden — To take on a heavy responsibility.
- give one's eyeteeth for something — To want something very badly.
- blush to the roots of one's hair — To go very red with embarrassment.
- not see beyond the end of one's nose — To have a narrow outlook and ignore anything beyond one's immediate concerns.
More English idioms
- make someone's life hell — To make someone very unhappy for a long time.
- sweep something under the rug — To hide a problem instead of dealing with it.
- push up daisies — To be dead and buried.
- manna from heaven — Something good that arrives unexpectedly just when it is needed.
- play for time — To delay deliberately in the hope of improving one's position.
- even Homer nods — Even the most skilled people sometimes make mistakes.
From our untranslatable words
- Prozvonit — To call someone's phone and hang up after one ring, so they call you back and you save th…
- Boketto — Staring off into the distance with your mind pleasantly empty, thinking of nothing at all.
- Pålegg — Anything you might put on a slice of bread — cheese, ham, jam, egg, whatever — gathered u…