Sc. [Origin not ascertained.]
1. Neat, clean, tidy, trim.
1776. D. Herd, Coll. Songs Gloss., Tosh, tight, neat.
1794. Ritson, Scot. Songs, I. 99. I gang ay fou clean and fou tosh, As a’ the neighbours can tell.
1823. J. Wilson, Trials Marg. Lyndsay, xxxiii. 271. The hedges will do—I clipped them wi’ my ain hands … and, nae doubt, they make the avenue look a hantle tosher.
2. Agreeable, comfortable; friendly, intimate.
1821. Blackw. Mag., X. 4. We were a very tosh and agreeable company.
1887. Suppl. to Jamieson, s.v., ‘They’re unco tosh wi’ ither.’
B. as adv. = Toshly (see below).
1780. Mayne, Siller Gun, I. xxiii. Shouther your arms; o! ha’d them tosh on, And not athraw!
1828. Moir, Mansie Wauch, vi. Matters were … settled full tosh between us.
Hence Toshly adv., neatly, tidily, trimly; snugly; Toshy a., neat, tidy, pretty.
1788. Picken, Poems, 176. Row’t toshly up, an’ franket.
1827. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, II. 21. Phrenologists … hae nae slicht o’ haun in curlin their hair toshly.
1856. J. Ballantine, Poems, 47. And see how it’s keepit sae toshy and clean.
1881. Jessie Simpson, in Mod. Sc. Poets, III. 263. Nae mair wee toshie feet to bath, nor gowden locks to kaim.
