Toss v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tossed (less properly Tost ); p. pr. & vb. n. Tossing.]
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 tempest. --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.]
To toss off, (a) to drink hastily. (b) to accomplish easily or quickly. (c) to say in an offhand manner; as, to toss off a comment. (d) to masturbate; -- British slang.
To toss the cars.See under Oar, n.
Toss·ing, n.
1. The act of throwing upward; a rising and falling suddenly; a rolling and tumbling.
2. Mining (a) A process which consists in washing ores by violent agitation in water, in order to separate the lighter or earthy particles; -- called also tozing, and treloobing, in Cornwall. --Pryce. (b) A process for refining tin by dropping it through the air while melted.
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tossing
adj : thrown from side to side; "a tossing ship" [syn: agitated]