“Ich schmeiße dich hier raus, wenn’s OK ist”, said the colleague giving me a lift from work. I remember being stunned at the combination of the seemingly aggressive verb with her normal, polite tone of voice. Cue small German lesson afterwards. Rausschmeißen does indeed mean to throw someone out etc. “Wir haben ihn rausgeschmissen” is what you might hear from a friend about a raucous guest at a party. There’s also the noun, Rausschmeißer, which means bouncer. And I was recently having coffee with a friend shortly before the café‘s closing time. The music suddenly got significantly louder. She laughed and said, “Das ist die Rausschmeißer-Musik”.

My colleague, of course, was using the word colloquially (or umgangssprachlich auf Deutsch) and simply meant to ask me if it was OK to let me out at a certain subway stop. However, to be on the safe side, if I get a lift now, I use the neutral “Ich kann schon hier aussteigen” instead of “Du kannst mich GERNE hier raussschmeißen.”