throw up one's hands

present singular third person throws up one's hands · participle present throwing up one's hands · past threw up one's hands · participle past thrown up one's hands

1. intransitiveTo raise both hands in the air in an exasperated manner.
2. idiomaticintransitiveTo cease an attempt because it is perceived as doomed.

   I see it warn't a bit of use to try to go ahead—I'd got to throw up my hands.

   1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   I wanted to throw up my hands and say, "Thanks. See ya." But I couldn't walk away.

   2001, James Patterson, Cradle and All, Warner Books, →ISBN, page 58

   So to us, the question isn't just "Does Vista suck?" but "Does Vista suck enough that businesses of any size should simply throw up their hands and migrate over to something else?"

   2007 August 22, Oliver Rist, “Does Vista suck?”, in InfoWorld

   Synonyms: give up, throw in the towel