Dictionary entry

Toss

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Toss (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p.Tossed (�); (less properly Tost); p. pr. & vb. n.Tossing.] [W. tosiaw, tosio, to jerk, toss, snatch, tosa quick jerk, a toss, a snatch.] 1. To throw with the hand; especially, to throw with the palm of the hand upward, or to throw upward; as, to toss a ball.

2. To lift or throw up with a sudden or violent motion; as, to toss the head.

He tossed his arm aloft, and proudly told me,

He would not stay. Addison.

3. To cause to rise and fall; as, a ship tossed on the waves in a storm.

We being exceedingly tossed with a tempeat. Act xxvii. 18.

4. To agitate; to make restless.

Calm region once,

And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent. Milton.

5. Hence, to try; to harass.

Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men. Herbert.

6. To keep in play; to tumble over; as, to spend four years in tossing the rules of grammar. Ascham.

To toss off, to drink hastily. — To toss the cars.See under Oar, n.