Now dial. and Sc. [Cf. SOSS sb.2]
† 1. trans. To put up so as to rest softly. Obs.
1711. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 10 March. I went to-day into the City, but in a coach, and sossed up my leg on the seat.
† 2. intr. To move gently; to lounge lazily. Obs.
1711. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 7 June. Yes, yes, I remember Berested’s bridge; the coach sosses up and down as one goes that way. Ibid. (1723), Stella at Wood Park, Misc. 1735, V. 209. Poor Stella must pack off to Town:… From wholesome Exercise and Air, To sossing in an easy Chair.
3. To fall with a thud or heavy impact. Also spec. in Mining.
1789. Davidson, Seasons, 100. Providence oft gets into one scale, To keep the proper poise, when easfu’ bliss, Into the other, sosses, overpond’rous.
1825. Jamieson, Suppl., To Soss, to fall down as a dead weight, to come to the ground as it were all in a piece.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 230. Sos.… To sink into the floor under great pressure from overlying strata.
1898. C. Hyne, Capt. Kettle, 294. Looks like as if they were going to soss down slap on top of us.
b. To sit down heavily.
c. 1790. A. Wilson, in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876), II. 100. We’ll hotch awa’ … And soss down on yon sinny stane.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., 399. ’Er sossed down i’ the cheer all at wunst.
4. trans. To cast or throw heavily.
1855–. in dialect glossaries, etc.
