3. Die Flinte ins Korn werfen
If you give up, you are ‘throwing in the towel.’ Especially in boxing events, fighters are said to throw in the white towel if they can’t fight anymore and have to give up. Well, this ‘job’ is usually done by the fighter’s team and not the boxer itself. So very recently, Deontay Wilder’s team had to throw in the towel when Deontay was fighting Tyson Fury.
In this fight, Deontay Wilder was outclassed from start to finish (well, for as long as it lasted) and to prevent even more damage, his team decided they had seen enough and threw in the towel to stop the fight.
So, in German, we do have a very similar saying that goes like “Das Handtuch werfen.” But wait a minute, doesn’t German saying Nr. 8 say “Die Flinte ins Korn werfen?” You are right. Of course, it does.
This “Die Flinte ins Korn werfen” is actually yet another nice German saying to say the same. The German expression “die Flinte ins Korn werfen” originates from wartime and refers to soldiers who preferred to surrender rather than fight in a hopeless battle and literally threw away their weapons (into the cornfield, if there was one obviously). Example:
A:Ich schaff das nie. Die anderen sind alle viel besser als ich. Ich werde an diesem Turnier gar nicht erst teilnehmen!
B: Jetzt hör aber auf. Du kannst doch die Flinte nicht einfach so ins Korn werfen! Du schaffst das schon! 
Translation:
A: I’ll never make it. The others are all much better than me. I’m not even gonna be in this tournament! You can’t throw in the towel like that. You can do it.
