chuck up

present singular third person chucks up · participle present chucking up · participle past chucked up · past chucked up

1. New ZealandUKintransitiveslangtransitiveTo vomit; throw up.

   Take it easy on the roller coasters or you're going to chuck up your lunch.

   1 more example

   She got ridiculously drunk last night and chucked up in the back of the minicab on the way home.

   Synonyms: upchuck, throw up

2. datedintransitivetransitiveTo chuck up the sponge; to give up; to admit defeat; to break a contract; to abandon or quit (something).

   I've never brought off a really big coup yet; when I do I shall chuck it up.

   2014, E. W. Hornung, Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman, →ISBN

   4 more examples

   But when you've tried it once or twice, And do not find it over nice, If it's dear at any price, Chuck it up. If it's not a paying game, Not worth the candle — all the same, Chuck it up.

   1891, Gems from Our Village, page 62

   What worried me was the sense of being up against something inhumanly formidable and wise and strong. I believed I was willing to own defeat and chuck up the game.

   1919, John Buchan, Mr. Standfast

   With a renewed sense of purpose, Logan was ready to chuck up the day as a waste until he stepped into the parlour of their home and almost bumped into a slinky, dark-skinned girl in a cotton docket and lappa, with a mid-leg slit on one side.

   2013, Pede Hollist, “Foreign Aid”, in A Memory This Size and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing, →ISBN, page 40

   He sounded quite excited, as if he were deriving some vicarious pleasure from the anticipated outcome of my efforts, and I hadn't the heart to tell him how, at that precise moment, I was feeling quite ready to chuck up the whole thing.

   2014, Robert Purvis, Three Men Called Josiah, →ISBN, page 70

   Synonyms: throw in the towel, chuck in, jig up, jack up

3. archaicslangTo be released from prison.