To vomit; also, to produce or raise something suddenly, or to abandon something.
To be sick and have food come back up from your stomach, or to suddenly show or create something.
4 meanings, ordered from most common to least. Color-coded by CEFR level.
To vomit; to expel the contents of the stomach through the mouth.
"She felt so nauseous on the boat that she threw up over the side."
I feel like I'm going to throw up.
— Common idiomatic expression; representative example from 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' by Stephen Chbosky, 1999
To produce, reveal, or bring something to light, often unexpectedly.
"The audit threw up several serious accounting irregularities."
To erect or construct something rapidly.
"They threw up a temporary fence around the construction site overnight."
To abandon or give up a job, position, or opportunity.
"He threw up his career in finance to become a painter."
To hurl something upward into the air.
To be sick and have food come back up from your stomach, or to suddenly show or create something.
The vomiting sense is universally understood and used across all English-speaking regions. The sense of 'producing' something (e.g. 'the investigation threw up new evidence') is more British. The sense of abandoning ('throw up a job') is relatively rare and formal.
Natural word combinations native speakers use most often.
The five tense forms you'll use most often.
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