toyi-toyi
toyi-toyi noun: a dance from southern Africa, used especially during political protests.
Noun
toyi-toyi (plural toyi-toyis)
Verb
toyi-toyi (third-person singular simple present toyi-toyis, present participle toyi-toying, simple past and past participle toyi-toyied)
- To perform this dance.
- [H]e stood with his back against the chanting, toyi-toying boys, arms outstretched as a shield before them: the sergeant strangely distracted by the old authority enacted the same stance, but to hold his men back.2012, Nadine Gordimer, No Time Like the Present, Bloomsbury, published 2013, page 30
- They are kids who get caught up in the excitement, hysteria of the period. You know, toyi-toying and hurling stones, and they are arrested and sentenced to a minimum five years on Robben Island.2017, Matthew Hahn, The Robben Island Shakespeare
Forms of toyi-toyi
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | toyi-toyis |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | toyi-toyis |
| present participle | toyi-toying |
| past participle | toyi-toyied |
| past | toyi-toyied |
Origin of toyi-toyi
Seemingly from Northern Ndebele [Term?], but the ultimate origin is unclear.
Questions about toyi-toyi
- What does toyi-toyi mean?
- Toyi-toyi means a dance from southern Africa, used especially during political protests.
- What part of speech is toyi-toyi?
- Toyi-toyi can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of toyi-toyi?
- The plural of toyi-toyi is toyi-toyis.
Words near toyi-toyi in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: toyi-toyi (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: “toyi-toyi.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/toyi-toyi. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.