Definition of "toss"

toss

/tɒs/

noun
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'.
5. (British slang) A state of agitation; commotion.
  Quotations
  This put us at the board into a Tosse.
  1666 June 2, Samuel Pepys, Diary
  "We are all in a toss, in our neighborhood," said Mistress Pottle.
  1845, Sylvester Judd, Margaret
6. (British slang, chiefly in the negative) concern or consideration.
7. (Billingsgate Fish Market slang) A measure of sprats.
  Quotations
  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.
  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
verb
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.
2. To lift with a sudden or violent motion.
  Quotations
  He tossed his arm aloft, and proudly told me, / He would not stay.
  1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, Act IV, scene i, page 50
  "Over the bender," said Wisp, with a laugh, tossing his thumb over his left shoulder as he spoke.
  1835, Charles Whitehead, The Autobiography of Jack Ketch, page 74
3. To agitate; to make restless.
  Quotations
  Calm region once, / And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent.
  1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
4. To subject to trials; to harass.
  Quotations
  Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men.
  , 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, […]; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, […], 1885,
5. To flip a coin, to decide a point of contention.
6. (informal, transitive) To discard; to throw away.
7. To stir or mix (a 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.
  Quotations
  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.
  2003, Joseph Wambaugh, Fire Lover, page 258
  Rankin and Willingham, when they tossed his cell, they took Polaroids so they could get everything back in place.
  2009, Thomas Harris, Red Dragon
  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.
  2011, Linda Howard, Kill and Tell: A Novel
10. (intransitive) To roll and tumble; to be in violent commotion.
11. (intransitive) To be tossed, as a fleet on the ocean, or as a ship in heavy seas.
  Quotations
  Even now did the sea toss up upon our shore
  c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, [Act 3, scene 2]
12. (obsolete) To keep in play; to tumble over.
  Quotations
  spend four or fiue yeares, in tossing all the rules of Grammer in common scholes
  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
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.
  Quotations
  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,
  1597, Joseph Hall, “Satire II”, in Satires‎, Chiswick: C. Whittingham, published 1824, page 7
  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.
  1695, [William] Congreve, Love for Love: A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], Act III, scene xv, page 54
15. (slang, usually as "toss one's cookies") To vomit.

Definition of "toss"

toss

noun

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verb

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