Tŏss1, v. t.
(21), v. t. [imp. & p. p. TOSSED (less properly TOST); p. pr. & vb. n. TOSSING.] [W. tosiaw, tosio, to jerk, toss, snatch, tos, a quick jerk, a toss, a snatch. Cf. also tose, tease, Ger. stozzen, to thrust, Lat. tundere, tusum, to beat, strike, buffet with repeated strokes, and Ger. tosen, to roar, to rage, of the elements.]
Sense 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.
Sense 2. To lift or throw up with a sudden or violent motion; as, to toss the head; or to toss up the head.
He tossed his arm aloft. Addison.
Sense 3. To cause to rise and fall; as, to be tossed on the waves. “We being exceedingly tossed with a tempest.” Acts xxvii. 16.
Sense 4. To agitate; to make restless.
Calm region once, And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent. Milton.
Sense 5. Hence, to try; to harass.
Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men. Herbert.
Sense 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 oars (Naut.), to throw them, with their blades up, in a perpendicular direction, as a salute.