throw
To toss something through the air with your hand. People also say it to mean surprising someone with news, hosting a party, or losing a game on purpose.
What a model may hear
- raise an exception programming in Java, C++, JavaScript, and similar languages
- halt normal execution and signal an error that must be caught or crashes the program
- rethrow or wrap an exception error-handling patterns and frameworks
- pass an error up the call stack, often with added context or converted to a different error type
- throw expression in C++ or similar systems programming and game engines
- trigger stack unwinding, which runs destructors and may carry objects representing the error
- throw in functional patterns functional programming libraries and monadic error handling
- short-circuit a computation, treated as a special case rather than a true language exception
Where people and models part ways
“throw me the file”
Meant: send me the file
May be taken as: interpret as a request to trigger an error with the file as payload, or attempt a network throw operation that does not exist
Say instead: “send me the file”
“throw a party for the launch”
Meant: host a celebration
May be taken as: interpret as initiating some kind of error event or system abort related to a software launch
Say instead: “host a party for the launch”
“throw the game”
Meant: lose on purpose
May be taken as: interpret as force-quitting or crashing a running game process
Say instead: “lose the game on purpose”
“don't throw that at me”
Meant: don't surprise me with that news
May be taken as: interpret as an instruction about exception handling, perhaps suppressing error reporting
Say instead: “don't surprise me with that”
Tips
- Say 'raise an error' or 'cause an error' when you want the programming behavior, not 'throw' alone.
- Say 'send' or 'pass' when you mean transfer something; avoid 'throw' for file or data transfers.
- In code contexts, pair 'throw' with 'catch' or 'exception' so the model knows you mean error handling.
- Say 'host' or 'hold' instead of 'throw' for events and parties.
- If you mean the physical act, add words like 'ball' or 'air' to keep the model in the right frame.
Often confused with
- catch
- the partner that receives an exception, not the act of tossing
- raise
- synonym in Ruby and Python, but not in plain speech about tossing
- toss
- the plain physical act, rarely used in programming
- emit
- sends out a signal or event, not an error halt
- yield
- pauses and returns a value in generators, does not abort
- return
- normal exit with a value, not an error condition