throw some shapes

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

throw some shapes (third-person singular simple present throws some shapes, present participle throwing some shapes, simple past and past participle threw some shapes)

1. (slang) To dance.
   • 2014, Kate Knighton, Susan Meredith, Christyan Fox, Why should I bother to keep fit?: Why Should I?, →ISBN:

     So put on your favourite tunes and throw some shapes.

   • 2016, Alasdair J.H. Jones, On South Bank: The Production of Public Space, →ISBN:

     By this time [he] has his shades on permanently, and sure enough he is soon up out of his seat to go and throw some shapes with the blonde woman at the far side.

   • 2016, David Eimer, Lonely Planet Pocket Beijing, →ISBN:

     Still not ready for bed? Then head to one of the nearby clubs and throw some shapes.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see throw,‎ some,‎ shapes.
   • 1993, Vince Pitelka, 9 Modern Artists, Bangladesh, page 30:

     Kibria's paintings first throw some shapes into a geometric prominence, then quickly lead the viewer throught a complex of...

   • 2001, Nathan Maxwell, MCSE instructor resource manual (70-220)::

     Granted, throwing some shapes on a page is pretty quick, but for your students to turn in a clean-looking diagram, they will have to put forth some effort.

   • 2001, Clay: A Studio Handbook, page 77:

     It is possible to throw some shapes so that they have a perfectly acceptable base straight off the wheel, with very little finish work.

   • 2018, Michael Nichols, Hell Gate: A Nexus of New York City s East River, page 47:

     Not that Block ignored the Hell Gate islands: his map throws some shapes into the pit of water between the Bronx and Long Island, below the Archipelagus, but it was years later, in 1639, that the so-called Manatus map (“Manhattan, located on the North River") depicted these islands accurately in size and shape and located them precisely in the places we know them to be.