On Literally Throwing in the Towel

While boxing may have seeped to the bottom of the back pages of the sports section, it still provides some of the most potent metaphors for capturing the hurly-burly of life. We encourage those who have absorbed a blow "to get up off the canvas" and praise others for never "throwing in the towel!"

"Throwing in the towel" is a symbol of surrender in the stylized war that is the prize ring. It is a gesture that goes back to bare-knuckle days when a combatant's corner, judging their man to be beaten and in danger, could fling in the sponge in the midst of the action and end the contest.

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