[General] throw up

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Silverobama

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Hi.

I read these sentences with "throw up" in one of my notebooks, but the source is unknown now. I think they're natural and grammatical. May I have your opinions?

1) When I get seasick, I throw up my food.
2) She began studying medicine, but threw it up after seeing the first operation.
3) They threw up a new cabin in a couple of hours.
 
I misunderstood sentence #2. I thought she vomited as a result of watching an operation. My correction would have been to delete "it", leaving "She began studying medicine but threw up after watching her first operation".
Teechar's correction makes much more sense!
 
No. You need "gave" instead of "throw", and "watching" instead of "seeing".


No. You need "put up" or "knocked up" instead of "threw up".

In sentence 3 threw up is a well understood British English idiom. It can be used when construction is so rapid that you might have doubts about the quality of the workmanship.
 
In sentence 3 threw up is a well understood British English idiom. It can be used when construction is so rapid that you might have doubts about the quality of the workmanship.

Along the same lines is "throw together".

Helen: That meal was delicious. It must have taken you hours!
Sarah: Not at all. I threw it together in about twenty minutes!
 
'Throw up' in the sense of rapid (likely shoddy) construction is used in AmE as well.
 
You could use 'knock out' in AmE for a similar sense of completing something quickly, though.
 
In American English, we would NEVER say knocked up!

It means impregnated.

It means that in BrE too, but it's also used with the other meaning.

I got up at 5am today and knocked up three chocolate cakes and a pile of pancakes!
 
I got up at 5am today and knocked up three chocolate cakes and a pile of pancakes!

I can't read this sentence without thinking about that scene from American Pie where Jim violates the warm apple pie.
 
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