toss

See also: tos, TOS, tôs, tös, tøs, and t-os

English

Etymology

From Middle English tossen (“to buffet about, agitate, toss; to sift or winnow”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old Norse (compare dialectal Norwegian tossa, dialectal Swedish tossa (“to strew, spread”)), or perhaps from an alteration of Middle English tosen (“to tease, pull apart, shred; to wound, injure”). Compare also Dutch tassen (“to pile or heap up, stack”).

The Welsh tos (“a quick jerk”) and tosio (“to jerk, toss”) are probably borrowed from the English.

Pronunciation

Noun

toss (plural tosses)

  1. A throw, a lob, of a ball etc., with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care.
  2. (cricket, soccer) The coin toss before a cricket match in order to decide who bats first, or before a football match in order to decide the direction of play.
  3. A haughty throwing up of the head.
  4. (British slang) A jot, in the phrase 'give a toss'.
    I couldn't give a toss about her.
  5. (British slang) A state of agitation; commotion.
    • 1666 June 2, Samuel Pepys, Diary:
      This put us at the board into a Tosse.
    • 1845, Sylvester Judd, Margaret:
      "We are all in a toss, in our neighborhood," said Mistress Pottle.
  6. (British slang, chiefly in the negative) concern or consideration.
    I don't give a toss.
  7. (Billingsgate Fish Market slang) A measure of sprats.
    • 1834, Sir Charles William Pasley, “That the cubic foot is the smallest measure, which ought to be used in wholesale dealings in fish or fruit”, in Observations on the expediency and practicability of simplifying and improving the measures, weights and money, used in this country, without materially altering the present standards, page 96:
      It will differ from the heaped measure of oysters, improperly called the peck, by about one-seventh part in excess, and from the toss of sprats by about one-third part in excess.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

toss (third-person singular simple present tosses, present participle tossing, simple past and past participle tossed or (obsolete) tost)

  1. To throw with an initial upward direction.
    Toss it over here!
  2. To lift with a sudden or violent motion.
    to toss the head
    • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 50:
      He tossed his arm aloft, and proudly told me, / He would not stay.
    • 1835, Charles Whitehead, The Autobiography of Jack Ketch, page 74:
      "Over the bender," said Wisp, with a laugh, tossing his thumb over his left shoulder as he spoke.
  3. To agitate; to make restless.
  4. To subject to trials; to harass.
    • [1633], George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple: Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, […], 1885, →OCLC:
      Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men.
  5. To flip a coin, to decide a point of contention.
    We should toss for it.
    I'll toss you for it.
  6. (informal, transitive) To discard; to throw away.
    Synonym: toss out
    I don't need it any more; you can just toss it.
  7. To stir or mix (a salad).
    to toss a salad; a tossed salad.
  8. (British, slang) To masturbate
  9. (transitive, informal) To search (a room or a cell), sometimes leaving visible disorder, as for valuables or evidence of a crime.
    • 2003, Joseph Wambaugh, Fire Lover, page 258:
      John Orr had occasion to complain in writing to the senior supervisor that his Playboy and Penthouse magazines had been stolen by deputies. And he believed that was what prompted a random search of his cell for contraband. He was stripped, handcuffed, and forced to watch as they tossed his cell.
    • 2009, Thomas Harris, Red Dragon:
      Rankin and Willingham, when they tossed his cell, they took Polaroids so they could get everything back in place.
    • 2011, Linda Howard, Kill and Tell: A Novel:
      Hayes had watched him toss a room before. He had tapped walls, gotten down on his hands and knees and studied the floor, inspected books and lamps and bric-abrac.
  10. (intransitive) To roll and tumble; to be in violent commotion.
    tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep
    • 1878, Henry James, An International Episode‎:
      “We can’t stand this, you know,” the young Englishmen said to each other; and they tossed about all night more boisterously than they had tossed upon the Atlantic billows.
  11. (intransitive) To be tossed, as a fleet on the ocean, or as a ship in heavy seas.
  12. (obsolete) To keep in play; to tumble over.
    • a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, edited by Margaret Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […] John Daye, […], published 1570, →OCLC:
      spend four or fiue yeares, in tossing all the rules of Grammer in common scholes
  13. (rowing) To peak (the oars), to lift them from the rowlocks and hold them perpendicularly, the handle resting on the bottom of the boat.
  14. (British, slang) To drink in large draughts; to gulp.
    • 1597, Joseph Hall, “Satire II”, in Satires‎, Chiswick: C. Whittingham, published 1824, page 7:
      Their modest stole, to garish looser weed, / Deck'd with love-favours their late whoredoms' meed: / And where they wont sip of the simple flood, / Now toss they bowls of Bacchus' boiling blood,
    • 1695, [William] Congreve, Love for Love: A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, scene xv, page 54:
      Why, forſooth, an you think ſo, you had beſt go to bed. For my part, I mean to toſs a Can, and remember my Sweet-Heart, afore I turn in; may-hap I may dream of her.
  15. (slang, usually as "toss one's cookies") To vomit.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams
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