toss

USTAWS/tɔs/UKTOS/tɒs/

Noun pluraltosses

24 meanings of toss

1
verbtransitive
To throw something so that it first moves upward.
He likes to toss peanuts into the air and catch them in his mouth.
The juggler tossed three rings high above his head.
Similarthrow, fling, hurl, chuck, lob
2
nouncountable or uncountable
A throw or lob of a ball or other object with an upward direction, often done without much care.
A gentle toss sent the coin spinning across the table.
The shortstop's casual toss to first base ended the inning.
Similarthrow, lob, flip, pitch, fling
3
verbcolloquialtransitive
To get rid of something by throwing it away.
Just toss any leftovers you won't eat.
She tossed the broken umbrella without a second thought.
Similardiscard, ditch, chuck, bin, junk
Oppositekeep, save
4
verbintransitive
To flip a coin into the air to settle a question or disagreement.
We can toss for the last slice if neither of us will give in.
The referees tossed to determine which team kicked off.
Similarflip
Note
The construction does the work here. You toss for whatever is at stake, and you can toss a person for it, as in I'll toss you for it, which makes your rival the direct object. No coin needs to be named, because the verb alone implies one. Sport has a formal version of the same act in the toss before a match.
5
verbtransitive
To mix a salad by lightly lifting and turning its ingredients, usually to coat them in dressing.
Toss the pasta with the warm sauce so it clings to each piece.
He tossed the salad gently to keep the leaves from bruising.
Similarmix, combine, coat, stir
Note
Kitchen English uses the past participle as a fixed adjective: a tossed salad is one mixed this way. The movement is a light lifting and turning, and it works for any loose ingredients, not just leaves. The same verb is used for coating pasta in sauce.
6
nouncountable or uncountable
The flip of a coin before a cricket or soccer match to decide who bats first or which way each side plays.
Winning the toss let the home side bowl first on a damp pitch.
The visiting captain called correctly and elected to bat after the toss.
Similarflip
Note
Sport turns the coin flip into a fixed ritual with its own verbs: a captain wins or loses the toss, and calls it. What the toss settles depends on the game. In cricket it decides who bats first, and in soccer it decides which direction each side plays. The action is the one in the verb for settling disputes, but here the noun names the whole pre-match ceremony.
7
verbcolloquialtransitive
To search a room or cell thoroughly, sometimes leaving visible disorder, while looking for valuables or evidence of a crime.
Detectives toss the suspect's room whenever they expect to find hidden contraband.
They tossed the entire apartment but found nothing incriminating.
Similarsearch, ransack
Note
Police and prison talk, whose usual objects are a cell or a room. In Thomas Harris's Red Dragon, two men who tossed a cell 'took Polaroids so they could get everything back in place.' The line shows that a toss can be thorough without being destructive, even though it often leaves a mess. Linda Howard's Kill and Tell (2011) shows the method: walls tapped, floors studied, books and lamps inspected.
8
verbtransitive
To lift or raise something with a sudden, forceful motion.
The proud rider tossed her head and rode on.
Startled deer toss their heads at the slightest sound.
Similarjerk, flick, fling
Note
Here the object is usually part of the body. The head comes first, which gives the haughty noun, but other parts appear too. Addison's Cato (1713) has 'He tossed his arm aloft,' and in Charles Whitehead's The Autobiography of Jack Ketch (1835) a man is 'tossing his thumb over his left shoulder.' The motion is quick and expressive, and nothing leaves the hand.
9
verbtransitive
To agitate someone or something, leaving them restless and unsettled.
Fever and worry tossed the patient throughout the night.
Restless thoughts toss sleepers who carry the day's stress to bed.
Similarvex, provoke, perturb
Oppositecalm, soothe, settle
Note
The past participle does much of this work, standing as an adjective beside words of unrest. Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) describes a region once 'full of peace, now tossed and turbulent.' Perturb and vex are close in meaning, but toss keeps the picture of being thrown about. That is the same buffeting that lies behind the noun for a fluster.
10
verbintransitive
To roll and tumble about, or be in a state of violent commotion.
He tossed restlessly under the blankets, unable to fall asleep.
Small boats toss wildly whenever the wind picks up.
Similarthrash, writhe, roll, pitch, rock
Note
Restless sleepers own this sense, and its fixed pair is toss and turn. About often follows the verb. Henry James's young Englishmen in An International Episode (1878) 'tossed about all night more boisterously than they had tossed upon the Atlantic billows.' James's joke links a sleepless bed to a ship in heavy seas.

11
verbintransitive
Of a ship or fleet, to be thrown about by rough water or heavy seas.
The fishing fleet tossed helplessly through the night gale.
Tall ships toss on the swell long after the storm has passed.
Similarpitch, roll, rock, heave, lurch
12
nouncountable or uncountable
In radio or television, a handoff to another presenter that the outgoing presenter announces on air.
A clumsy toss left the co-host scrambling to pick up the segment.
The presenter ended with a warm toss to the sports desk.
Similarhandover, handoff, throw
Note
Studio jargon built on the image of throwing: the presenter on air throws the program to a colleague, and to marks whoever catches it. Viewers hear a toss to the sports desk, or to a reporter in the field. Dennis Hart's Monitor (Take 2) (2003) lays out a show as an introduction from New York 'followed by the toss to the newsperson in Washington.'
13
nounslangBritishcountable or uncountable
A condition of nervous agitation or commotion.
He worked himself into a complete toss over a tiny mistake.
The whole household was in a toss the morning of the wedding.
Similarstate, tizzy, flap, stew, lather
Note
The noun stays close to the word's Middle English root, tossen, 'to buffet about, agitate', whose origin is uncertain and possibly Norse. It comes with prepositions: one is in a toss, or put into one. Samuel Pepys wrote in his Diary in 1666 that something 'put us at the board into a Tosse', and Sylvester Judd's Margaret (1845) has 'We are all in a toss.' Today it is British slang.
14
nounslangBritishcountable or uncountable
The slightest amount of concern or interest in something.
He couldn't give a toss about fashion or what other people wear.
Frankly, nobody on the team gives a toss who gets the credit.
Similardamn, hoot, fig
Note
A word that lives almost entirely in negatives: I don't give a toss, couldn't give a toss, and the scornful question who gives a toss? Said positively, it sounds wrong, so learners should keep it inside these frames. It is British slang, blunt and dismissive, suited to casual talk and out of place in anything formal.
15
nounslangUKuncountable
Worthless or foolish talk; nonsense.
Critics dismissed the manifesto as pretentious toss.
He talks an awful lot of toss when he's had a few drinks.
Similarnonsense, rubbish, drivel, tosh, twaddle
Oppositesense
Note
An uncountable word, so it never takes a on its own. Instead you talk toss, talk absolute toss, or dismiss something as a load of toss. Caitlin Moran's How to be Famous (2018) has 'talking such absolute toss', and Brian Conaghan's The M Word (2019) has 'a load of toss'. It is British slang, dismissive rather than vulgar.
16
verbslangintransitive
To vomit, bringing up the contents of the stomach through the mouth.
After one too many drinks, he stumbled outside to toss in the alley.
She tossed twice on the rocking boat before the seasickness finally eased.
Similarvomit, puke, barf, hurl, spew
Note
Usually heard in the idiom toss one's cookies, which turns being sick into a joke. Bare toss in this meaning is less common, and in context it can be mistaken for throwing something away. Chuck and hurl are its slang neighbors, and all three are casual words to keep out of formal writing.
17
verbslangUKintransitive
To stimulate one's own genitals for sexual pleasure.
Blokes will toss off anywhere they think no one is watching.
She walked in while he was tossing off and quickly backed out.
Similarmasturbate, wank, frig, fap
Note
The verb behind the vulgar noun, and like it British slang to keep out of polite company. It usually takes the particle off, as in toss off. Its closest synonym is wank, which marks the register exactly. Learners mostly need it in order to recognize it, not to use it.
18
nounvulgarUKcountable or uncountable
An instance of masturbating.
He reckoned a quick toss would help him relax before the interview.
She teased him that he needed a toss to sort his mood out.
Similarwank
Note
Vulgar British slang, usually in the frame have a toss, and a close twin of wank. Martina Cole's Faces (2008) puts the two side by side: 'a wank, a toss'. A 1983 collection of children's wordplay records it in an anonymous playground rhyme. Because the word's other senses are so ordinary, learners should know this one exists and keep it out of polite company.
19
verbslangUKtransitive
To drink in large gulps; to swallow quickly.
Sailors would toss their grog in a single swallow.
She tossed the last of the cider and set the glass down.
Similarguzzle, chug, imbibe
Note
Older than its slang label suggests. Joseph Hall's Satires (1597) has drinkers who 'toss they bowls of Bacchus' boiling blood', and a character in Congreve's Love for Love (1695) means 'to toss a Can' before turning in. In modern British speech it usually takes back or down, as in toss back a pint. It suggests hearty, hurried drinking.
20
verbtransitive
To put through hardship or trouble; to harass.
Fate had tossed the sailors through one disaster after another.
Endless setbacks toss anyone bold enough to start a business.
Similarpester, beset, beleaguer
Note
Fortune or other people do the tossing, and the sufferer usually appears in the passive. George Herbert's The Temple (1633) has 'thus is he tossed of men,' using of where modern English would say by. The image is a body buffeted like a ship in heavy seas, and the sense now has a literary ring.
21
nouncountable or uncountable
A proud or scornful upward jerk of the head.
With a toss of her head, she swept past without a word.
He answered the insult with a haughty toss and turned on his heel.
Similarflick, jerk
22
verbtransitive
To raise the oars from the oarlocks and hold them upright, with the handles resting on the bottom of the boat.
As the shell neared the pontoon, the eight tossed their oars in unison.
Cadets must toss the oars cleanly before stepping ashore.
Note
A boat-handling term that almost always takes oars as its object, and peak is its other name. The crew tosses oars together, raising them upright with the handles grounded in the bottom of the boat. It differs from shipping or feathering oars: a tossed oar stands straight up, clear of the rowlocks.
23
verbobsolete
To keep in motion or play; to turn or tumble over.
spend four or fiue yeares, in tossing all the rules of Grammer in common scholes
a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children
Note
Obsolete now, this sense meant turning something over and over, and it could reach past objects to study. Roger Ascham's The Scholemaster speaks of spending 'four or fiue yeares, in tossing all the rules of Grammer in common scholes.' Readers who meet it in older prose should take it as 'going over and over' rather than throwing.
24
nouncountable or uncountable
A standard measured quantity of sprats, as reckoned at market.
The dealer set aside a toss of sprats for the regular buyers.
He haggled hard over the price of a toss of sprats.
Note
A trade word from Billingsgate Fish Market, where sprats were reckoned by the toss, usually in the phrase a toss of sprats. Sir Charles William Pasley, writing on measures in 1834, sets it beside the heaped oyster measure 'improperly called the peck'. He says the measure he is discussing exceeds the toss of sprats by about a third.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English tossen ("to buffet about, agitate, toss; to sift or winnow"), of uncertain origin. It may come from Old Norse (compare dialectal Norwegian tossa and dialectal Swedish tossa, "to strew, spread"), or perhaps from an alteration of Middle English tosen ("to tease, pull apart").