tozy
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unclear. Various dictionaries mention an old dialectal word tozy, tosy meaning "cosy, cozy", which may be from toze, tose + -y, but it is not clear if this is related to the "intoxicated" sense.
Adjective
[edit]tozy (comparative more tozy, superlative most tozy)
- (possibly obsolete) Slightly intoxicated; tipsy.
- 1727, P. Walker, R. Cameron in Biogr. Presbyt. (1827) I, 278:
- The Magistrates there came into prison, and said, This day you are all to die, and if any of you will undertake to be executioner to the rest, he shall have his life […] The Magistrates gave him Drink and kept him tozy until the murder was over.
- 1794, Poems Eng., Sc., & Lat., 95:
- What puir man, whan he's tozy, But spends as he ware bein and cozy?
- 1821, "The Ayrshire Legatees", in Blackwood's Magazine (February 1821), volume 8, page 506:
- The truth, however, was, that the worthy elder had been rendered somewhat tozy by the minister's toddy, […]
- 1727, P. Walker, R. Cameron in Biogr. Presbyt. (1827) I, 278:
See also
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “tozy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933., Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
- Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “TOSIE”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume VI (T–Z, Supplement, Bibliography and Grammar), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.