toss
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɒs/
ipa: /tɔs/
ipa: /tɑs/
rhymes: -ɒs
Forms: form: tosses
form: tossing
form: tossed
form: tossed
form: tost
form: tost
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.
Senses: examples: text: Toss it over here!
synonyms: word: chuck
word: fling
word: bung
word: cast
word: chuck
word: chunk
word: cook
word: dash
word: dump
word: feck
word: fling
word: jerk
word: heave
word: hield
word: hoy
word: huck
word: hurl
word: hurtle
word: launch
word: lob
word: peck
word: peg
word: pick
word: pitch
word: precipitate
word: project
word: quoit
word: shy
word: slight
word: skew
word: sling
word: thrill
word: throw
word: toss
word: traject
word: warp
word: whang
word: whip
word: whop
word: wing
glosses: To throw with an initial upward direction.
examples: text: to toss the head
text: He tossed his arm aloft, and proudly told me,
 He would not stay.
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 50:
text: "Over the bender," said Wisp, with a laugh, tossing his thumb over his left shoulder as he spoke.
ref: 1835, Charles Whitehead, The Autobiography of Jack Ketch, page 74:
glosses: To lift with a sudden or violent motion.
examples: text: Calm region once,
 And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
synonyms: perturb
provoke
vex
glosses: To agitate; to make restless.
examples: text: Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men.
ref: [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:
synonyms: beleaguer
beset
pester
glosses: To subject to trials; to harass.
examples: text: We should toss for it.
text: I'll toss you for it.
glosses: To flip a coin, to decide a point of contention.
examples: text: I don't need it any more; you can just toss it.
synonyms: toss out
throw out
glosses: To discard; to throw away.
examples: text: to toss a salad; a tossed salad.
glosses: To stir or mix (a salad).
synonyms: word: wank
word: bash one out
word: bate
word: beat it
word: beat off
word: crank one out
word: fap
word: frig
word: jack off
word: jack it
word: jerk it
word: jerk off
word: jork it
word: knock one out
word: masturbate
word: mastuprate
word: play pocket pool
word: play with oneself
word: pleasure oneself
word: rub one out
word: self-abuse
word: self-pollute
word: service oneself
word: skeet
word: toss
word: toss off
word: touch oneself
word: wank
word: wank off
word: whack off
glosses: To masturbate.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2003, Joseph Wambaugh, Fire Lover, page 258:
text: Rankin and Willingham, when they tossed his cell, they took Polaroids so they could get everything back in place.
ref: 2009, Thomas Harris, Red Dragon:
text: 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.
ref: 2011, Linda Howard, Kill and Tell: A Novel:
glosses: To search (a room or a cell), sometimes leaving visible disorder, as for valuables or evidence of a crime.
examples: text: tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep
text: “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.
ref: 1878, Henry James, An International Episode:
text: Senseless tossing about at night before sleep comes on is often obviated by a healthful fatigue from a pleasant occupation, provided the fatigue is not sufficient to shatter the nerves. Simple measures, such as “counting sheep,” is a gentle soporific, and may be amplified by the more scholarly, as Kant did, who would think of a word such as “Cicero,” and delve into all the ramifications the thought suggested, until his mental faculties were gradually enmeshed in the veil of sleep.
ref: 1928 December 15, Frank J. Hirschboeck, “Treatment of Functional Heart Disease”, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 91, number 24, →DOI, page 1855:
synonyms: welter
glosses: To roll and tumble; to be in violent commotion.
examples: text: Even now did the sea toss up upon our shore
ref: c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
synonyms: bucket about
uptoss
glosses: To be tossed, as a fleet on the ocean, or as a ship in heavy seas.
examples: text: spend four or fiue yeares, in tossing all the rules of Grammer in common scholes
ref: 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:
glosses: To keep in play; to tumble over.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
rowing
sports
glosses: To peak (the oars), to lift them from the rowlocks and hold them perpendicularly, the handle resting on the bottom of the boat.
examples: text: 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,
ref: 1597, Joseph Hall, “Satire II”, in Satires, Chiswick: C. Whittingham, published 1824, page 7:
text: 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.
ref: 1695, [William] Congreve, Love for Love: A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, scene xv, page 54:
synonyms: word: chug
word: guzzle
word: drink
word: hydrate
word: imbibe
word: wet one's whistle
word: wet one's beak
glosses: To drink in large draughts; to gulp.
synonyms: word: chuck
word: hurl
word: bait
word: barf
word: be sick
word: blow chunks
word: boak
word: boke
word: boot
word: bork
word: bow down before the porcelain god
word: cast
word: cast up one's accounts
word: chuck
word: chuck up
word: chunder
word: disgorge
word: drive the porcelain bus
word: erupt
word: gag
word: get sick
word: heave
word: honk
word: hurl
word: launch one's lunch
word: lose one's lunch
word: pray to the porcelain god
word: puke
word: puke up
word: purge
word: ralph
word: regurge
word: regurgitate
word: retch
word: shoot the cat
word: sick
word: sick up
word: spew
word: talk to God on the big white telephone
word: talk to Ralph on the big white telephone
word: throw up
word: toss
word: toss one's cookies
word: upchuck
word: vomit
word: woof one's cookies
word: whoops
word: worship the porcelain god
word: worship the porcelain goddess
word: yak
glosses: To vomit.
raw_tags: as "toss one's cookies"
Derived terms: toss a bone to
toss a coin
toss and turn
toss around
toss away
toss caution to the wind
toss down
tosser
toss in
toss in with
toss it in
toss off
toss one's cookies
toss one's hat in the ring
toss one's hat into the ring
toss one's name in the hat
tosspot
toss salad
toss someone a bone
toss someone's salad
toss the pieman
toss together
toss to the wind
toss up
tosticated