throw shade

English

Etymology

(Thisetymologyis missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium.)

Verb

throwshade(third-person singular simple presentthrows shade,present participlethrowing shade,simple pastthrew shade,past participlethrown shade)

1. (originallyLGBTQslang)Tosubtlyinsultsomeone.
   • 1994,bell hooks,chapter 7, inOutlaw Culture: Resisting Representations:

     To begin with, I need to make it clear to those who don’t know that thethrowing-shade,dissin’, “reading” style that carried Miss Camille to fame was a persona she assembled after years of ethnographically studying the mannerisms of vernacular black culture, especially black gay sub-culture, and most especially the culture of the black queen.

   • 2014December 10, Gina Vaynshteyn, “Emotional Stages of Hating to Loving Taylor Swift”, inBustle‎^[1]:

     Wait,1989is actually really, really good. It feels genuine, and only slightly entitled, and mostly awesome. You like how itthrows shade,but not too much shade.

   • 2018July 17, “Queen Elizabeth may have thrown shade at President Trump with her brooches”, inAOL‎^[2]:

     And while the meeting made headlines in other ways -- like when POTUS left the queen waiting for 10 minutes on live TV as he was running late -- no one picked up on the subtleshadeQueen Elizabeth may havethrownat Trump on three separate occasions.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically:seethrow,‎shade.
   • 1951,The Architectural Forum‎^[3],volume94,page187:

     First we pick out an overhang which willthrow shademost of this time, but at the same time will not cast too much shade during those hours which are not overheated.

   • 1994,Frances Tenenbaum,Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening‎^[4],page 1:

     A neighbor once asked me to remove a tree thatthrew shadeonto his plot.

Translations

to subtly insult someone

• Portuguese:jogar shade

See also

• put in the shade

References

• “throw shade”,inOneLook Dictionary Search.