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Meaning of throw someone a curve in English:

throw someone a curve

phrase

informal North American

  • Unexpectedly present someone with a challenge or disruption.

    • ‘just when you think you have this parenting thing down pat, they throw you a curve’
    • ‘Life will always throw you curves.’
    • ‘"You've done everything that you can think of to ensure mission success, but Mars can still throw you a curve," said the former NASA Mars czar.’
    • ‘Every once in a while life throws you a curve.’
    • ‘There's nothing like some long-term epidemiological data to really throw a curve to the diet industry.’
    • ‘This being the third edition of "Endurance," Zhou probably should have known that the producers would throw the contestants a curve.’
    • ‘Little did I know that he was about to throw me a curve that would bring out skills I did not even know I had.’
    • ‘Dean, who sells himself as the presidential campaign's straightest shooter, is starting to throw voters some curves.’
    • ‘Just when we got a bearing on a situation, the instructors would throw us another curve.’