giving up; being at a loss; throwing in the towel
Expresses a state of helplessness or resignation when one has exhausted all options. Often used in the phrase お手上げだ or お手上げになる. The literal image is of raising one's hands in surrender.
This problem is too difficult; I'm completely at a loss.
His stubbornness has me throwing up my hands.
I'm completely stumped by this difficult problem.
No matter how much I explained, they didn't understand, so I finally gave up.
When his computer suddenly stopped working, he had no idea what to do.