“Throw in the towel” comes from boxing, but the exact moment the phrase entered the language is unknown. Written examples of the wording are found by the early 20th century, often dated to 1913. Its boxing background is older: 19th-century accounts used the related expression “throw up the sponge.” Both images refer to a fighter’s corner signaling that its boxer cannot or should not continue.
In a bout, a boxer’s seconds—today more commonly called the corner team—might throw a towel or sponge into the ring to attract attention and indicate surrender. It is tempting to imagine a single, official rule or ceremony behind the idiom, but boxing practices have varied. Nor is there good reason to say that the towel phrase formally replaced the sponge phrase. The two expressions belong to the same sporting tradition, and the precise path from one to the other is uncertain.
The image soon proved useful outside the ring. To “throw in the towel” came to mean giving up, accepting defeat, or deciding that further effort is pointless. The shift works because the gesture is vivid: a contest is still under way, but someone close to the fighter has judged that continuing would be futile. The expression can describe a real setback, a difficult undertaking, or simply a decision to stop trying. “After months of delays, the team threw in the towel on the project.” “I’m not throwing in the towel yet; I’ll give the puzzle another try.”
A popular account sometimes makes the towel seem like an automatic stop signal that instantly ends a fight. In practice, the gesture communicates the corner’s decision, while the referee’s role and the rules governing a bout determine what happens next. That distinction matters: the phrase grew from a recognizable ringside signal, not necessarily from a universal procedure. Its close relative, “throw up the sponge,” also reminds us that the familiar wording was part of a broader set of boxing expressions, rather than a phrase with one securely documented inventor.
The idiom endures because it turns an abstract choice—conceding defeat—into a clear, memorable action.