throw up (one's) hands
To submit or give up. I'm ready to throw up my hands after trying to train this unruly puppy. Don't just throw up your hands—keep trying.
throw up (one's) hands
To indicate or express utter hopelessness: He threw up his hands and abandoned the argument.
throw up one's hands, to
To express despair, frustration, or exasperation. Although this gesture must be very old indeed, the expression appeared in print only from the late nineteenth century. George M. Fenn used it in The Double Knot (1890): “The woman threw up her hands and reeled.”