Does "throw up" have alternative meaning?

Question

I always thought that "throw up" means to vomit. But I heard on a news channel

... The police officials cornered < robber's name >. He had no other option than to Throw up. ....

I initially thought that the robber vomited. But I saw on another channel that he has told the truth.

Question: Does "throw up" mean to reveal details?

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_{I read this but it gives another interpretation of the word}

Answer 1

Underworld slang for "to confess, to tell". (slightly obsolete per E.P. some 40-50 years ago) A Dictionary of the Underworld: British and American By Eric Partridge

Answer 2

To "throw up" usually means to vomit. That is the most straightforward meaning that most people will assume.

To "throw something up", like "throw up his hands", is different. Likewise, if there is a reason to think that a person actually throws an object, then we might think that the sentence is talking about the direction that an object travels through the air. However, if the phrase "throw up" is used without any context that provides further description, then vomiting is generally what is meant. That is what I would likely think of (and so is probably what many other native speakers would think of).

Despite Usernew's answer showing that "to reveal" is another definition, which may be a way to use the phrase which is technically accurate, I'm saying (as an American English speaker) that isn't the most common usage. "To reveal" is not what people tend to initially think.

Answer 3

Yes, it means to produce problems, results, ideas, etc.

So basically the robber had to give details or relevant information to officers. For instance, the talks with the robber threw up interesting possibilities.

Other meanings of throw up include:

1. Leave suddenly a job, position, charge to do something else.
   — I threw up my waiter job to look for something better.
2. Create dust to make visibility harder.
   — The car threw up so much dust and we couldn't keep driving.

Answer 4

Throw Up¹ means "to vomit" or "regurgitate" which further means to eject the contents of the stomach from the mouth.

.....He had no other option than to throw up

There's the first clue in your question.

And here's the second clue:

I initially thought that the robber vomited. But I saw on another channel that he has told the truth.

"Throw up" is used as a figure of speech^†. This means that he spoke the truth (that he was a thief or he stole or something else). He spilled the beans.

Speaking of your question: "Does "throw up" mean to reveal details?" Answer³:

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_{† Since further information/context in unavailable.}

<sub>Source:
1. Oxford Dictionaries
2. The FreeDictionary</sub>