online medical dictionary | definition of toss

<acronym>

Preferred term: Terminal Oriented Social Science

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. To toss off, to drink hastily. To toss the cars.See Oar.

Origin: W. Tosiaw, tosio, to jerk, toss, snatch, tosa quick jerk, a toss, a snatch.

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.

(01 Mar 1998)