toss Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the act of flipping a coin
    flip.
  2. noun (sports) the act of throwing the ball to another member of your team
    flip; pass.
    • the pass was fumbled
  3. noun an abrupt movement
    • a toss of his head
  4. verb throw or toss with a light motion
    sky; flip; pitch.
    • flip me the beachball
    • toss me newspaper
  5. verb lightly throw to see which side comes up
    flip.
    • I don't know what to do--I may as well flip a coin!
  6. verb throw carelessly
    chuck.
    • chuck the ball
  7. verb move or stir about violently
    thresh about; thrash about; convulse; jactitate; thresh; slash; thrash.
    • The feverish patient thrashed around in his bed
  8. verb throw or cast away
    dispose; cast aside; throw away; fling; cast away; chuck out; throw out; cast out; put away; discard; toss out; toss away.
    • Put away your worries
  9. verb agitate
    • toss the salad

WordNet

Toss transitive verb
Etymology
W. tosiaw, tosio, to jerk, toss, snatch, tosa quick jerk, a toss, a snatch.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Tossed ; (less properly Tost ); present participle & verbal noun Tossing
Definitions
  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.
  2. To lift or throw up with a sudden or violent motion; as, to toss the head.
    He tossed his arm aloft, and proudly told me, He would not stay. Addison.
  3. To cause to rise and fall; as, a ship tossed on the waves in a storm.
    We being exceedingly tossed with a tempeat. Act xxvii. 18.
  4. To agitate; to make restless.
    Calm region once, And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent. Milton.
  5. Hence, to try; to harass.
    Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men. Herbert.
  6. To keep in play; to tumble over; as, to spend four years in tossing the rules of grammar. Obs. Ascham.
Toss intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To roll and tumble; to be in violent commotion; to write; to fling.
    To toss and fling, and to be restless, only frets and enreges our pain. Tillotson.
  2. To be tossed, as a fleet on the ocean. Shak.
Toss noun
Definitions
  1. A throwing upward, or with a jerk; the act of tossing; as, the toss of a ball.
  2. A throwing up of the head; a particular manner of raising the head with a jerk. Swift.

Webster 1913