tosher
tosher noun: a thief who steals the copper siding from the bottoms of vessels, particularly in or along the Thames. Also the comparative form of tosh.
Noun (1)
tosher (plural toshers)
- A thief who steals the copper siding from the bottoms of vessels, particularly in or along the Thames.
- Toshers, men who steal copper from ships' bottoms in the Thames.1859, J.C. Hotten, A dictionary of modern slang, cant, and vulgar words used at the present day, preceded by a history of cant and vulgar language, with glossaries of two secret languages, by a...
- A scavenger of valuables lost in the sewers, particularly those of London during the Victorian Age.
- The sewer-hunters were formerly, and indeed are still, called by the name of ‘Toshers’, the articles which they pick up in the course of their wanderings along shore being known among themselves by the general term ‘tosh’, a word more particularly applied by them to anything made of copper.1851, H. Mayhew, London labour and the London poor, II. 150/2
Adjective capitalized: Tosher
Tosher (comparative more Tosher, superlative most Tosher)
- Pertaining to the Tosh Hassidic community.
Noun (2) capitalized: Tosher
Tosher (plural Toshers)
- A member of the Tosh Hassidic community.
Also used as
tosher is also the comparative form of tosh.
Forms of tosher
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | toshers |
| plural | Toshers |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more Tosher |
| superlative | most Tosher |
| alternative form | Tasher |
Origin of tosher
From 19th-century British thieves' cant tosh (“copper; items made of copper”) + -er (“one who uses or acquires”).
See tosh.
From Tosh + -er. From Hebrew טאהש.
Words formed from tosher
Questions about tosher
- What does tosher mean?
- Tosher means a thief who steals the copper siding from the bottoms of vessels, particularly in or along the Thames.
- What part of speech is tosher?
- Tosher can be a noun or an adjective.
- What is the plural of tosher?
- The plural of tosher is toshers.
Words near tosher in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tosher (page history and authors); Tosher (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “tosher.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tosher. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.