This was said by one of my mates while retelling a story. The story runs that there was a court being held, and there was a recording-clerk as well. But this was a humor story, and the story continued that everybody was telling the recording-clerk to take out what was previously said, to the point that the clerk lost his temper and "dropped the pen and threw up the sponge."
Does this saying mean that he resigned?
Best Answer
Contrary to the other answers, the Oxford English Dictionary lists only "throw (or chuck) up the sponge", and not "throw" or "throw in".
Its first quotation, from a slang dictionary of 1860, says "from the practice of throwing up the sponge used to cleanse the combatants' faces, at a prize~fight, as a signal that the ‘mill’ is concluded."
I think Alain is confusing it with "throw in the towel".