a. Chiefly Sc. and north. dial. Also 8 touzie, 9 touzy, towzy, -sie, toosy. [f. TOUSE v. + -Y.] Disheveled, unkempt, tousled; shaggy, rough. Also in comb.
[1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xviii. 32. And be I ornat in my speiche, Than Towsy sayis, I am sa streiche.]
1786. Burns, Twa Dogs, 33. His breast was white, his touzie back Weel clad wi’ coat o’ glossy black.
1820. Blackw. Mag., May, 159/1. Like yere ain towsie hassock o’ hair, that has nae been kamed since Kate Kimmer kamed it with the three-footed stool.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 180. What an outlandish, toosy-headed, wee sun-brunt deevil o’ a lassie that.
1871. C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, xiv. His hair was long and ‘touzy.’
