You may or may not realize that English is not my mother tongue. (My two mother tongues are Russian and Ukrainian… second one to some lesser extent — I used to speak it a little in my childhood only with my grandma, and great-grandma; and heard conversations between my dad and them). And although I’ve started learning English at the tender age of 7, still… While reading and listening is never a problem — I’m doing it literally for decades — actively using it is absolutely another thing, which usually shatters all my confidence to tiny shards. The purpose of forum is to allow people converse with others, and when I having doubt in rapport, mutual understanding with my interlocutor, it always leads to frustration. And inventive, ingenious use of the language by my opponent always throws me under the bus: “Is it me? Or is it him/her? Why can’t I understand what is said?”
So. When I’m reading: “I was asking you about why you throw in the short chapters.”, I starting to panic: “What? What?! WHAT?!! I am NOT an author. I don’t write any story. Why he is saying, that I’m INSERTING some short chapters in MY STORY (which doesn’t exist, to begin with)? What REALLY does he saying? I DON’T UNDERSTAND!”
OK. I understand, that I don’t understand anything, so, I’m copypasting that sentence to Google Translate. Nah. It still gives me the meaning that I’m inserting / including / interposing / pasting / embedding / plugging something somewhere. So, I go to online dictionaries. Maybe, I simply don’t know some nuances of word usage.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/throw-in
Nah. Nothing.
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/throw-in_1
Hmm… “to add a remark to a conversation” is something, but still not exactly what I’m looking for.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/throw in#dictionary-entry-2
Nah. I’m not adding, contributing, distributing, engaging or joining.
And only when I see:
“
throw in the towel or less commonly
throw in the sponge :
to abandon a struggle or contest | acknowledge defeat | give up”,
I guess, it’s the correct meaning. We even have the same phrase in Russian («бросить полотенце») with the same meaning. I believe, it’s from boxing sport. When coach suggests, that his boxer is in a knockdown (and boxers usually are trained to keep standing no matter what), and continuation of the match may lead to injury, trauma, he literally can throw in the towel (which he uses to wipe boxer between rounds) into ring, indicating, that he acknowledges defeat of his sportsman. BUT. If somebody would say to me “throw in” («бросить») without “towel” («полотенце») even in Russian, I guess, with 100% certainty, I will NOT understand him.
