Athrow, alob, of a ball etc., with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care.
(cricket,soccer) Thecoin 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.
1834,Sir Charles William Pasley, “That the cubic foot is the smallest measure, which ought to be used in wholesale dealings in fish or fruit”, inObservations on the expediency and practicability of simplifying and improving the measures, weights and money, used in this country, without materially altering the present standards,page96:
It will differ from the heaped measure of oysters, improperly called the peck, by about one-seventh part in excess, and from thetoss of sprats by about one-third part in excess.
1667,John Milton, “Book VIII”, inParadise Lost.[…], London:[…] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker[…];[a]nd by Robert Boulter[…];[a]nd Matthias Walker,[…],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books:[…], London: Basil Montagu Pickering[…],1873,→OCLC:
Calm region once, And full of peace, nowtossed and turbulent.
[1633],George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar],The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:[…] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green,[…],→OCLC:
(transitive,informal) Tosearch (a room or a cell), sometimes leaving visible disorder, as for valuables or evidence of a crime.
2003, Joseph Wambaugh,Fire Lover, page258:
John Orr had occasion to complain in writing to the senior supervisor that his Playboy and Penthouse magazines had been stolen by deputies. And he believed that was what prompted a random search of his cell for contraband. He was stripped, handcuffed, and forced to watch as theytossed his cell.
Rankin and Willingham, when theytossed his cell, they took Polaroids so they could get everything back in place.
2011, Linda Howard,Kill and Tell: A Novel:
Hayes had watched himtoss a room before. He had tapped walls, gotten down on his hands and knees and studied the floor, inspected books and lamps and bric-abrac.
“We can’t stand this, you know,” the young Englishmen said to each other; and theytossed about all night more boisterously than they hadtossed upon the Atlantic billows.
(intransitive) To be tossed, as a fleet on the ocean, or as a ship in heavy seas.
a.1569 (date written),Roger Ascham, edited byMargaret Ascham,The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong,[…], London:[…]John Daye,[…], published1570,→OCLC:
spend four or fiue yeares, intossing all the rules of Grammer in common scholes
(rowing) Topeak (the oars), to lift them from the rowlocks and hold them perpendicularly, the handle resting on the bottom of the boat.
Their modest stole, to garish looser weed, Deck'd with love-favours their late whoredoms' meed: And where they wont sip of the simple flood, Nowtoss they bowls of Bacchus' boiling blood,
Why, forſooth, an you think ſo, you had beſt go to bed. For my part,I mean totoſs a Can, and remember my Sweet-Heart, aforeI turn in; may-hapI may dream of her.
