# throw down
## English
### Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Source needed for the claim of Jay Johnson as first user.”)
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?”

### Pronunciation

* Audio (General Australian):(file)

### Verb

throw down (third-person singular simple present throws down, present participle throwing down, simple past threw down, past participle thrown down)
* (transitive) To cause something one is holding to drop, often forcefully.
    Synonyms: cast down, cast aside, throw aside
    The soldiers threw down their weapons and surrendered.
* (transitive, dated) To destroy or demolish.
    to throw down a tower
* (slang, idiomatic, transitive) To produce or perform (something) admirably or forcefully.
** 2001, Dave Thompson, Funk, back cover:...this guide tracks the artists and recordings that throw down the funk!
** 2004, Kylie Adams, Ex-Girlfriends‎, page 48:“Punch up the rhymes. Throw down some beats. Show off that body. You'll be unstoppable.”
* (slang, idiomatic, intransitive, by extension) To accomplish or produce something in a grand, respectable, or successful manner; to "represent".
** 1997, Richard C. Green, Soul: Black Power, Politics, and Pleasure‎, page 93:Yeah, they could literally throw down. When their sound came out, it was earth-shaking.
** 1998, Sheila Copeland, Chocolate Star‎, page 260:“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”.
* (slang, idiomatic, intransitive) To drink a large amount quickly.
    "We need to finish these five pitchers in half an hour, so throw down as fast as you can!"
* (slang, idiomatic, intransitive) To fight; to make a stand.
** 2002, Lory Janelle Dance, Tough Fronts: The Impact of Street Culture on Schooling‎, page 60:Let's you and me 'throw down' right here, right now!
** 2004, William Bowers, “I Think I'm Going to Hell”, in Da Capo Best Music Writing 2004, page 41:When someone near me at a show called the band My Boring Racket, I was ready to throw down, but for the good sense of an accompanying female...
** 2004, bell hooks, We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity‎, page 59:Today's young and hip black male who fancies himself a radical, who is ready to throw down for the cause, is not talking about neo-colonialism, about global struggle.
** 2006, Erick S. Gray, Nasty Girls: An Urban Novel‎, page 32:She said no words and was the first to throw down. She stepped up to Dee, and pow!
** 2006, Sherman D. Manning, Blue-Eyed Blonde‎, page 345:The time has come. I'm ready to take action. I wanna kick ass and take names later. I wanna throw down, baby boy and baby girl.
* (slang, idiomatic, intransitive) To make an individual contribution to a group effort (e.g. money pool, collaborative record album).
    "We're goin' in on a pizza; you in?" "Yeah, I'll throw down."

#### Related terms

* throwdown, throw-down
* throw down the gauntlet

#### Translations
### See also

* bring it
* throw up

### Anagrams

* downthrow