In the sport of boxing, boxers, their trainers, or their corner attendants, would throw the sponge or towel used to wipe the boxer’s face into the ring to signal defeat and the end of the fight.
This act produced the idiomatic sayings gettare la spugna (literally “to throw the sponge”) in Italian, and to throw in the towel / sponge in English. In both languages, it means to admit defeat, or to abandon a struggle.
gettare la spugna
to throw in the towel/sponge
I miei affari non vanno per niente bene. Sono pronto a gettare la spugna.
My business isn’t going well at all. I’m ready to throw in the towel.
In non-idiomatic Italian, you will hear people use the verbs arrendersi (to give up / surrender) and cedere (to cede / give in). Another common idiomatic expression with the same meaning is darsi per vinto (to give up / surrender).
L’atleta non si dà mai per vinto.
The athlete never gives up.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
