Toss

(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.]

1Sense 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.

2Sense 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.

3Sense 3. To cause to rise and fall; as, to be tossed on the waves. “We being exceedingly tossed with a tempest.” Acts xxvii. 16.

4Sense 4. To agitate; to make restless.

Calm region once, And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent. Milton.

5Sense 5. Hence, to try; to harass.

Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men. Herbert.

6Sense 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.

v. i. 1. To roll and tumble; to be in violent commotion; to writhe; to fling.

To toss and fling, and to be restless, only frets and enrages our pain. Tillotson.

2Sense 2. To be tossed. Shak.

To toss for, to gamble for. — To toss up, to throw a coin into the air, and wager on what side it will fall. Brampton.