threw

English

Etymology

From Middle English threw, from Old English þrēaw (first and third person past tense of þrāwan), from West Germanic *þreu, from Northwest Germanic *þrerō, from Proto-Germanic *þeþrō (first and third person past tense of *þrēaną), reduplication of *þrēaną.

Pronunciation

• enPR: thro͞o, IPA^(key): /θɹuː/, /θɹɪʊ̯/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophones: through, thru

Verb

threw

1. simple past of throw
2. (colloquial, nonstandard) past participle of throw
   • 1967, John McPhee, The Pine Barrens‎^[1], page 66:

     "But I'd have threw lead at him if I'd been scared enough. I wasn't scared enough."

   • 1979, Investigation of the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr […] ‎^[2], U.S. Government Printing Office, page 606:

     I may have threw it away then, or I may have threw it away after I got the passport and didn't need the various other stuff any long.

   • 2005 June 1, Tracy Brown, Criminal Minded: A Novel‎^[3], St. Martin's Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 152:

     I never should have had all them niggas in my bed for all them years. Never should have threw you out.

Anagrams

• Werth