Toss

subs. (old colloquial).—1.  Agitation, commotion, anxiety.

  1666.  PEPYS, Diary, 2 June. This put us at the Board into a TOSSE. Ibid. (1667), 10 Oct. Lord what a TOSSE I was for some time in, that they could not justly tell where it [gold that he had buried] was.

  1870.  JUDD, Margaret, ii. 5. ‘We are all in a TOSS in our neighbourhood,’ said Mistress Pottle.

  2.  (Billingsgate).—A measure of sprats.

  Verb. (colloquial).—To drink at a draught, to gulp: e.g., to TOSS a can of beer: also to TOSS OFF: cf. TOAST. Hence TOSS-POT = a drunkard (GROSE): see LUSHINGTON; TOSSED (or TOSTICATED) = drunk: SCREWED.

  1560.  PILKINGTON, Sermons (Parker Society). [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 558. Among the new substantives are gamester … lip-labour] a TOSSPOT.

  1582.  HAKLUYT, Voyages, I. 253. They returne to their old intemperancie of drinking, for they are notable TOSSPOTS.

  1583.  ASCHAM, The Scholemaster, iv. 35. A certain friar TOSSING THE POT, and drinking very often at the table was reprehended by the priour.

  1592.  NASHE, Summer’s Last Will [DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), viii. 59]. Rise up, Sir Robert TOSS-POT [Here he dubs Will Summer with the Black-Jack].

  1599.  JOSEPH HALL, Satires, I. ii. 26. Now TOSS they bowls of Bacchus’ boiling blood.

  [?]  Robin Hood [CHILD, Ballads, v. 375]. For in a brave vein they TOST OFF the bouls.

  1601.  HOLLAND, Pliny, XXIII. xviii. Our lustie TOSS-POTS and swill-bowls.

  c. 1650.  BRATHWAITE, Barnaby’s Journal, II. 57. There I TOSS’D it with my skinkers.

  1653.  URQUHART, Rabelais, I. v. Thus became TOM TOSSPOT rich.

  1670.  COTTON, Scarronides, or, Virgil Travestie (1770), 129.

  1695.  CONGREVE, Love for Love, iii. 15. I mean to TOSS A CAN, and remember my sweetheart afore I turn in.

  1719.  D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, vi., 201.

  1725.  N. BAILEY, trans. The Colloquies of Erasmus, ‘Epith. P. Ægidus.’ The husband … has been call’d Blockhead, TOSS-POT, Swill-Tub.

  1820.  LAMB, The Essays of Elia, ‘The Two Races of Men.’ A good part he drank away (for he was an excellent TOSS-POT).

  1821.  P. EGAN, Life in London, 75. The soldiers … were TOSSING OFF the heavy wet and spirits.

  1837.  MARRYAT, Snarleyyow; or The Dog Fiend, xxxii. The corporal produced the bottle and the glass, poured it out, made his military salute, and TOSSED IT OFF.

  1841.  DICKENS, Barnaby Rudge, xiii. To be looked upon as a common pipe-smoker, beer-bibber … and TOSS-POT.

  Also COLLOQUIALISMS and PHRASES:  TO TOSS OUT = (1) to dress hurriedly, and (2) to depart hastily; TO TOSS OFF = (1) see verb supra; (2) to do, execute, or turn out quickly: as TO TOSS OFF a poem, a task, or musical performance; (3) to while away (of time), to dispose of easily; and (4) = to masturbate (venery); TO TOSS UP (or TO TOSS) = (1) to decide a matter by ‘skying’ a coin (GROSE): also as subs. (or TOSS-UP) = an even chance, and TO WIN THE TOSS = to be successful; TO TOSS UP = (2) to prepare rough and readily (of food).

  [?].  Richard Cœur de Leon [Weber, Metrical Romances, II. 170].

  c. 1692.  KING, The Vestry, l. 40.

  1759.  GOLDSMITH, The Bee, No. 2, 13 Oct. I … walked behind a damsel TOSSED OUT in all the gaiety of fifteen; her dress was loose, unstudied, and seemed the result of conscious beauty.

  1809.  MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 407. It is a TOSS UP who fails and who succeeds: the wit of to-day is the blockhead of to-morrow.

  1851.  HAWTHORNE, The House of the Seven Gables, vii. Poor Hepzibah was seeking for some nimble little titbit, which … she might TOSS UP for breakfast.

  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 206. To TOSS THE PIEMAN is a favourite pastime with costermongers’ boys, and all that class. If the pieman WINS THE TOSS he receives a penny without giving a pie; if he lose, he hands over a pie for nothing. Ibid. II. 412. They spend … what money they may have in TOSSING for beer, till they are either drunk or penniless.

  1853.  DICKENS, Bleak House, xiii. ‘I haven’t the least idea,’ said Richard, musing, ‘what I had better be. Except that I am quite sure I don’t want to go into the Church, it’s a TOSS-UP.’

  1857.  T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, i. 5. Hasn’t old Brooke WON THE TOSS, with his lucky halfpenny, and got choice of goals?

  1870.  JUDD, Margaret, ii. 1. Have you read Cynthia? … It is a delightful thing TO TOSS OFF a dull hour with.

  1872.  G. ELIOT, Middlemarch, lxxxiii. It is a mere TOSS-UP whether I shall ever do more than keep myself decently.

  1882.  J. ASHTON, Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, II. 35. He TOSSED UP whether he should hang or drown. The coin fell on its edge in the clay, and saved his life for that time.

  1889.  NICOLAY and HAY, Abraham Lincoln, in The Century Magazine, xxxviii. Oct., 856. One of the most earnest advocates of the measure said, ‘’T is the TOSS of a copper.’

  1885.  Daily Telegraph, 23 Sept. There may have been instances where juries have ‘TOSSED UP’ sooner than remain to convince an obstinate colleague.

  1886.  The Field, 4 Sept. [It] looked a TOSS-UP as to which would arrive home first.

  1888.  KIPLING, Only a Subaltern. ‘He’ll do,’ said the doctor quietly; ‘it must have been a TOSS-UP all through the night.’

  See BLANKET.