English

Verb

throw shade ‎(third-person singular simple present throws shade, present participle throwing shade, simple past threw shade, past participle thrown shade)

1. (gay slang) To subtly insult someone.
   • 1994, bell hooks, chapter 7, in Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations:

     To begin with, I need to make it clear to those who don’t know that the throwing-shade, dissin’, “reading” style that carried Miss Camille to fame was a persona she assembled after years of ethnographically studying the mannerisms of vernacular black culture, especially black gay sub-culture, and most especially the culture of the black queen.

   • 1990, Paris Is Burning

     Dorian Corey: Shade is: "I don't tell you you're ugly, but I don't have to tell you because you know you're ugly." And that's shade.