toss
UK /tɒs/ · US /tɔs/ noun, verb
Forms tosses tossing tossed tost
- noun A throw, a lob, of a ball etc., with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care.
- noun (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.
- noun A haughty throwing up of the head.
- noun (British slang, chiefly in the negative) Concern or consideration. “I don't give a toss about her.”
- noun (British slang) A state of agitation; commotion.
- noun (Billingsgate Fish Market slang) A measure of sprats.
- noun (broadcasting) A handover from one presenter to another, announced by the first presenter.
- noun (UK, slang, uncountable) Nonsense; drivel.
- verb To throw with an initial upward direction. “Toss it over here!”
- verb To lift with a sudden or violent motion. “to toss the head”
- verb To agitate; to make restless.
- verb To subject to trials; to harass.
- verb To flip a coin, to decide a point of contention. “We should toss for it.”
- verb (informal, transitive) To discard; to throw away. “I don't need it any more; you can just toss it.”
- verb To stir or mix (a salad). “to toss a salad; a tossed salad.”
- verb (UK, slang) To masturbate.
Synonyms
chuck fling bung cast chunk cook dash dump feck jerk heave hield hoy huck hurl hurtle launch lob peck peg flip pass sky pitch convulse thresh thresh about thrash thrash about slash
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.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To roll and tumble; to be in violent commotion; to write; to fling.
- verb To be tossed, as a fleet on the ocean. Shak. To toss for, to throw dice or a coin to determine the possession of; to gamble for. -- To toss up, to throw a coin into the air, and wager on which side it will fall, or determine a question by its fall. Bramsion.
- noun A throwing upward, or with a jerk; the act of tossing; as, the toss of a ball.
- noun A throwing up of the head; a particular manner of raising the head with a jerk. Swift.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “toss”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details