throw down
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.79 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To accomplish or produce something in a grand, respectable, or successful manner; to "represent".
Intransitive verb; Slang
verb
To make an individual contribution to a group effort (e.g. money pool, collaborative record album).
Intransitive verb; Slang
Example Sentences
- "The soldiers threw down their weapons and surrendered."
- "to throw down a tower"
- "...this guide tracks the artists and recordings that throw down the funk!"
- "“Punch up the rhymes. Throw down some beats. Show off that body. You'll be unstoppable.”"
- "Yeah, they could literally throw down. When their sound came out, it was earth-shaking."
- "“You're performing for the who's who of radio and records at the Soul Train Awards tonight and you've got to throw down”."
Etymology
US, popularized 1970s in street culture, from idiom throw down the gauntlet (“to issue a challenge”), used in sense “to fight, to incite a fight, to make a stand” or otherwise get about partying with abandon (first used by Jay Johnson in Detroit in 1978 - taken nationally by Cecil Franklin, manager/brother of Aretha Franklin). Sense of “accomplish something respectable” evolved from sense “to make a stand, to exhibit, to demonstrate (in a challenging way)” inherent in the fighting sense. Sense of “to make a contribution” likely influenced by sense “to make a stand”, as in “are you in?”, “will you stand up and contribute?”