Word.ws English Dictionary

toss

UK/tɒs/US/tɔs/

toss noun: a throw, a lob, of a ball etc., with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care.

Noun (1)

toss (countable and uncountable, plural tosses)

  1. A throw, a lob, of a ball etc., with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care.
  2. The coin toss before a cricket match in order to decide who bats first, or before a football match in order to decide the direction of play.
  3. A haughty throwing up of the head.
  4. (British, slang) Concern or consideration.
    • I don't give a toss about her.
  5. (British, slang) A state of agitation; commotion.
    • This put us at the board into a Tosse.1666 June 2, Samuel Pepys, Diary
    • "We are all in a toss, in our neighborhood," said Mistress Pottle.1845, Sylvester Judd, Margaret
  6. (Billingsgate Fish Market slang) A measure of sprats.
    • It will differ from the heaped measure of oysters, improperly called the peck, by about one-seventh part in excess, and from the toss of sprats by about one-third part in excess.1834, Sir Charles William Pasley, “That the cubic foot is the smallest measure, which ought to be used in wholesale dealings in fish or fruit”, in Observations on the expediency and practicability of...
  7. A handover from one presenter to another, announced by the first presenter.
    • The introduction would still be done by the Monitor host in New York's Studio 5B, followed by the toss to the newsperson in Washington.2003, Dennis Hart, Monitor (Take 2) (page 87)
  8. (UK, slang, uncountable) Nonsense; drivel.
    • Then I look again at this message. What a load of toss.2012 February 16, Sean Thomas, Millions of Women are Waiting to Meet You: A Story of Life, Love and Internet Dating, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 101
    • 'You were,' John said, with infinite love, 'talking such absolute toss.'2018 June 28, Caitlin Moran, How to be Famous, Random House, →ISBN
  9. (UK, vulgar) An act of masturbation.
    • And Uncle Frank is having a wank, And Auntie Floss is having a toss, With Grandad.1983, N. G. N. Kelsey, quoting an anonymous playground song, Games, Rhymes, and Wordplay of London Children, Springer, published 2019, →ISBN, page 436
    • This girl was a wank, a toss, something to be used over and over again, even when she was a pensioner; the pictures would be around till the next millennium.2008 September 4, Martina Cole, Faces: A chilling thriller of loyalty and betrayal, Hachette UK, →ISBN

Verb

toss (third-person singular simple present tosses, present participle tossing, simple past and past participle tossed or (obsolete) tost)

  1. To throw with an initial upward direction.
    • Toss it over here!
    • President Trump posted an AI-generated video on Thursday on Truth Social that showed him tossing a “Trump 2028” hat at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).2025 October 3, Ryan Mancini, “Trump posts AI video throwing 'Trump 2028' hat at Jeffries”, in The Hill, archived from the original on 04 Oct 2025
  2. To lift with a sudden or violent motion.
    • to toss the head
    • He tossed his arm aloft, and proudly told me,
      He would not stay.1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 50
  3. To agitate; to make restless.
    • Calm region once,
      And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent.1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...
    Synonyms:
    perturb, provoke, vex
  4. To subject to trials; to harass.
    • Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men.[1633], George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis...
    Synonyms:
    beleaguer, beset, pester
  5. To flip a coin, to decide a point of contention.
    • We should toss for it.
    • I'll toss you for it.
  6. (informal, transitive) To discard; to throw away.
    • I don't need it any more; you can just toss it.
  7. To stir or mix (a salad).
    • to toss a salad; a tossed salad.
  8. (UK, slang) To masturbate.
  9. (informal, transitive) To search (a room or a cell), sometimes leaving visible disorder, as for valuables or evidence of a crime.
    • 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.2003, Joseph Wambaugh, Fire Lover, page 258
    • Rankin and Willingham, when they tossed his cell, they took Polaroids so they could get everything back in place.2009, Thomas Harris, Red Dragon
  10. (intransitive) To roll and tumble; to be in violent commotion.
    • tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep
    • “We can’t stand this, you know,” the young Englishmen said to each other; and they tossed about all night more boisterously than they had tossed upon the Atlantic billows.1878, Henry James, An International Episode
    Synonyms:
    welter, thrash
  11. (intransitive) To be tossed, as a fleet on the ocean, or as a ship in heavy seas.
    • Even now did the sea toss up upon our shorec. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry...
    Synonyms:
    bucket about, uptoss
  12. (obsolete) To keep in play; to tumble over.
    • spend four or fiue yeares, in tossing all the rules of Grammer in common scholesa. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, edited by Margaret Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […]...
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. To peak (the oars), to lift them from the rowlocks and hold them perpendicularly, the handle resting on the bottom of the boat.
  2. (UK, slang) To drink in large draughts; to gulp.
    • Their modest stole, to garish looser weed,
      Deck'd with love-favours their late whoredoms' meed:
      And where they wont sip of the simple flood,
      Now toss they bowls of Bacchus' boiling blood,1597, Joseph Hall, “Satire II”, in Satires, Chiswick: C. Whittingham, published 1824, page 7
    • Why, forſooth, an you think ſo, you had beſt go to bed. For my part, I mean to toſs a Can, and remember my Sweet-Heart, afore I turn in; may-hap I may dream of her.1695, [William] Congreve, Love for Love: A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, scene xv, page 54
  3. (slang, usually) To vomit.

Noun (2) capitalized: TOSs

TOSs

  1. (plural) plural of TOS

toss meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

toss in Hindi

टॉस करें

toss in Marathi

टॉस करा, टॉस, टॉस करण्यासाठी

toss in Urdu

ٹاس کریں, ٹاس

toss in Bengali

টস করুন, টস, টস করা
More languagesFewer languages
toss in Telugu
టాస్ చేయండి
toss in Malayalam
ടോസ് ചെയ്യുക, ടോസ് ചെയ്യൂ, ടോസ് ചെയ്യാൻ
toss in Kannada
ಟಾಸ್ ಮಾಡಿ, ಟಾಸ್, ಟಾಸ್ ಮಾಡಲು
toss in Punjabi
ਟਾਸ, ਟਾਸ ਕਰੋ, ਟਾਸ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
toss in Gujarati
ટોસ કરો, ટૉસ કરો, ટોસ
toss in Odia
ଟସ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ଟସ୍, ଟସ୍ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
toss in Nepali
टास, ट्यास गर्न, टाउस गर्न
toss in Malay
lambung, tos, buang, gaul

Examples of toss in a sentence

  • I always thought that the breathing thing was a load of toss, but it helped calm me big time.2019 September 5, Brian Conaghan, The M Word, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
  • "Over the bender," said Wisp, with a laugh, tossing his thumb over his left shoulder as he spoke.1835, Charles Whitehead, The Autobiography of Jack Ketch, page 74:
  • Hayes had watched him toss a room before.2011, Linda Howard, Kill and Tell: A Novel:
  • Senseless tossing about at night before sleep comes on is often obviated by a healthful fatigue from a pleasant occupation, provided the fatigue is not sufficient to shatter the nerves.1928 December 15, Frank J. Hirschboeck, “Treatment of Functional Heart Disease”, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume...

All 40 example sentences with toss

Synonyms of toss

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of toss

Forms of toss

Noun
pluraltosses
Verb
third-person singular presenttosses
present participletossing
past participletossed
pasttossed
past participle (obsolete)tost
past (obsolete)tost

Past tense of toss: tossed

Plural of toss: tosses

Origin of toss

From Middle English tossen (“to buffet about, agitate, toss; to sift or winnow”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old Norse (compare dialectal Norwegian tossa, dialectal Swedish tossa (“to strew, spread”)), or perhaps from an alteration of Middle English tosen (“to tease, pull apart, shred; to wound, injure”). Compare also Dutch tassen (“to pile or heap up, stack”). The Welsh tos (“a quick jerk”) and tosio (“to jerk, toss”) are probably borrowed from the English.

Words formed from toss

Phrases with toss

1 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with toss

27 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about toss

What does toss mean?
Toss means a throw, a lob, of a ball etc., with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care.
What is toss in Hindi?
Toss in Hindi is टॉस करें. See Toss meaning in Hindi.
How do you use toss in a sentence?
I always thought that the breathing thing was a load of toss, but it helped calm me big time.
What part of speech is toss?
Toss can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce toss?
Toss is pronounced /tɒs/ (UK).
What is the plural of toss?
The plural of toss is tosses.

Words near toss in the dictionary

  1. tosol
  2. Tosos
  3. tospoviral
  4. tospovirus
  5. tospoviruses
  6. toss
  7. toss a bone to
  8. toss a coin
  9. toss and turn
  10. toss around
  11. toss away

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: toss (page history and authors); TOSs (page history and authors); toss (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toss (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toss (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toss (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toss (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toss (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toss (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toss (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toss (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toss (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toss (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-toss.ogg.

Cite this entry: “toss.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/toss. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.