toss
Contents
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /tɒs/
- (General American) IPA(key): /tɔs/
- (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA(key): /tɑs/
- Rhymes: -ɒs
Noun[edit]
toss (plural tosses)
- A throw, a lob, of a ball etc., with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care.
- (cricket, soccer) The toss of a coin before a cricket match in order to decide who bats first, or before a football match in order to decide the direction of play.
- (Britain, slang) A jot, in the phrase 'give a toss'.
- I couldn't give a toss about her.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
throw, a lob, of a ball
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toss of a coin before a match
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Verb[edit]
toss (third-person singular simple present tosses, present participle tossing, simple past and past participle tossed or (obsolete) tost)
- To throw with an initial upward direction.
- Toss it over here!
- To lift with a sudden or violent motion.
- to toss the head
- Addison
- He tossed his arm aloft, and proudly told me, / He would not stay.
- To agitate; to make restless.
- Milton
- Calm region once, / And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent.
- Milton
- To subject to trials; to harass.
- Herbert
- Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men.
- Herbert
- To flip a coin, to decide a point of contention.
- I'll toss you for it.
- (informal) To discard: to toss out
- I don't need it any more; you can just toss it.
- To stir or mix (a salad).
- to toss a salad; a tossed salad.
- (Britain, slang) To masturbate
- (transitive, informal) To search (a room or a cell), sometimes leaving visible disorder, as for valuables or evidence of a crime.
- "Someone tossed just his living room and bedroom." / "They probably found what they were looking for."
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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.
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2009, Thomas Harris, Red Dragon:
- Rankin and Willingham, when they tossed his cell, they took Polaroids so they could get everything back in place.
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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.
- (intransitive) To roll and tumble; to be in violent commotion.
- tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep
- (intransitive) To be tossed, as a fleet on the ocean, or as a ship in heavy seas.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
- (obsolete) To keep in play; to tumble over.
- to spend four years in tossing the rules of grammar
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Ascham to this entry?)
- (rowing) To peak (the oars), to lift them from the rowlocks and hold them perpendicularly, the handle resting on the bottom of the boat.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to throw with an initial upward direction
to flip a coin
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to discard
to stir or mix (a salad)
to roll around as in restless sleep
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See also[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Cricket
- en:Football (soccer)
- British English
- English slang
- English verbs
- English informal terms
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- Requests for quotation/Shakespeare
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Requests for quotation/Ascham
- en:Rowing