toss
/tɔs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.91 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A throw, a lob, of a ball etc., with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
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.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "I don't give a toss about her."
- "This put us at the board into a Tosse."
- ""We are all in a toss, in our neighborhood," said Mistress Pottle."
- "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."
- "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."
- "Then I look again at this message. What a load of toss."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: tossen, -, tosen
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /tɔs/
- British English: /tɒs/