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I know there's a phrase that means giving up, but I can't remember it. It's in the context of the following question/text:

So you're saying I should just ________ and do whatever they want?

The phrase is similar to "pack it in", "swallow it up". It goes something like "drink it up" but that doesn't sound good.

Does anyone know what this phrase could be ?

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    Are you thinking of "suck it up"? To accept the unpleasant facts on the ground and stop complaining, and just "get on with it", "it" being whatever needs to be done.
    – TimR
    Commented Aug 18 at 11:21
  • 1
    Yes. This term could be Play nice. Cave in. Roll over. Bend over. Lube up. But this site is not the best for "I'm thinking of a phrasal verb, 2 syllables, starts with" because you know what we will guess at without a defined answer outside of ... you. Commented Aug 18 at 13:52
  • 1
    This question is similar to: Idiom/word/saying request: Accepting a situation out of desperation. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.
    – DjinTonic
    Commented Aug 18 at 14:10
  • I'd probably say ‘cave’ or ‘fold’. Commented Aug 18 at 21:48
  • 1
    What’s wrong with give up?
    – Xanne
    Commented Aug 19 at 0:21

3 Answers 3

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So you're saying I should just throw in the towel and do whatever they want?

throw in the towel or less commonly throw in the sponge (phrase)

To abandon a struggle or contest : acknowledge defeat : give up
M-W

throw in the towel (idiom)

To stop trying to do something because you have realized that you cannot succeed

Three of the original five candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination have now thrown in the towel.
Cambridge

to throw (chuck, or toss) in the towel

To admit defeat. Originally Boxing.

1915 In the nineteenth round Storbeck's seconds ‘threw the towel’ in literally. E. Corri, Thirty Years Boxing Referee 223

1923 He had found the going too hard and had chucked in the towel.
P. G. Wodehouse, Inimitable Jeeves xv. 192
[OED online]

1

To chuck something in.

chuck something in [phrasal verb with chuck verb] [informal] to stop doing something that was a regular job or activity:

  • I've decided to chuck in my job.

[Cambridge Dictionary]

Sometimes abbreviated (even further? The original is possibly 'Just chuck it in the bin') to the simplex verb:

The expression 'chuck it' is colloquial, and usually means to forget about something or even someone. For example

  • This problem’s unsolvable – just chuck it.

[Quora][altered very slightly]

0

knuckle under

intransitive (figurative) To acknowledge oneself beaten; to give way, give in, submit. Usually knuckle down or knuckle under.

1735   Knuckle or Knuckle down, to stoop, bend, yield, comply with, or submit to.
                W. Pardon, Dyche’s New General English Dictionary

1791   I knuckle not—I owe not to the great A thimble-full of obligation.
                J. Wolcot, Remonstr. 73

1871   He had to knuckle and comply in all points.
                T. Carlyle in J. W. Carlyle, Letters & Memorials (1883) vol. II. 237

1882   They must all knuckle under to him.
                M. E. Braddon, Mt. Royal vol. II. iv. 63

1888   He would not knuckle down under the attacks of the Land League.
                Times (Weekly edition) 2 November 12/3

1955   He replied that there was no power on earth to make a local party
                accept a candidate. He was rather sorry they knuckled under to
                Transport House in this division.
                Times 19 May 15/4

1964   Britain, he said, had ‘knuckled under’ to threats of African violence,
                but there was little he could constitutionally do about it.
                Annual Register 1963 10

1973   Now the last group of any size..has knuckled under following a series
                of splits and coups.
                Nation Review (Melbourne) 31 August 1444/1

[OED online - entry 2.a. for ‘knuckle’]

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