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toss up

 Origin

toss

   [taws, tos] ,verb, tossed or (Literary) tost; toss·ing; noun
verb (used with object)
1.
to throw, pitch, or fling, especially to throw lightly or carelessly: to toss a piece of paper into the wastebasket.
2.
to throw or send from one to another, as in play: to toss a ball.
3.
to throw or pitch with irregular or careless motions; fling or jerk about: The ship was tossed by waves.
4.
to agitate, disturb, or disquiet.
5.
to throw, raise, or jerk upward suddenly: She tossed her head disdainfully.
EXPAND
6.
to speak or express in a sudden offhand manner; interject: He tossed jokes into their serious discussion.
7.
to throw (a coin) into the air in order to decide something by the side turned up when it falls (sometimes followed by up).
8.
to toss a coin with (someone).
9.
to stir or mix (a salad) lightly until the ingredients are coated with the dressing.
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verb (used without object)
10.
to pitch, rock, sway, or move irregularly, as a ship on a rough sea or a flag or plumes in the breeze.
11.
to fling or jerk oneself or move restlessly about, especially on a bed or couch: to toss in one's sleep.
12.
to throw something.
13.
to throw a coin into the air in order to decide something by the way it falls (sometimes followed by up).
14.
to go with a fling of the body: to toss out of a room in a fit of anger.

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Toss up is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
noun
15.
an act or instance of tossing.
16.
a pitching about or up and down.
17.
a throw or pitch.
18.
tossup (def. 1).
19.
the distance to which something is or may be thrown.
EXPAND
20.
a sudden fling or jerk of the body, especially a quick upward or backward movement of the head.
COLLAPSE
Verb phrases
21.
toss off,
a.
to accomplish quickly or easily.
b.
to consume rapidly, especially to drink something up in one swallow: He tossed off a cocktail before dinner.
c.
British Slang. to masturbate.
22.
toss up, Informal. to vomit.
Idiom
23.
toss one's cookies, Slang. cookie (def. 6).
Origin:
1595–1605; origin uncertain

Related forms
toss·er, noun
toss·ing·ly, adverb
un·tossed, adjective

Synonyms
1. See throw.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To toss up
Collins
World English Dictionary
toss up
 
—vb
1.  to spin (a coin) in the air in order to decide between alternatives by guessing which side will fall uppermost
2.  (tr) to prepare (food) quickly
 
—n
3.  an instance of tossing up a coin
4.  informal an even chance or risk; gamble

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

toss
1506, possibly from a Scand. source (cf. dialectal Norw. tossa "to strew, spread"). Food preparation sense (with ref. to salad, etc.) is recorded from 1723. The noun meaning "an act of throwing" is first recorded 1660. Tosspot "heavy drinker" is from 1568. Toss-up "even matter" first recorded 1809,
EXPAND
from earlier sense of "a flipping of a coin to arrive at a decision" (c.1700). Tosser as a term of contempt in British slang is recorded from 1977, probably from slang toss off "masturbate" (1969); cf. jerk (n.).
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary

toss (sth) definition


  1. tv.
    to do something quickly without much time or effort. : It was no big deal. I tossed it off in thirty minutes.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

toss-up definition


  1. n.
    a matter of chance. (As predictable as the outcome of the toss of a coin.) : Nobody knew what to do. It was a toss-up.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Matching Quote
"... women are supposed to be unfit to vote because they are hysterical and emotional and of course men would not like to have emotion enter into a political campaign. They want to cut out all emotion and so they would like to cut us out. I had heard so much about our emotionalism that I went to the last Democratic national convention, held at Baltimore, to observe the calm repose of the male politicians. I saw some men take a picture of one gentleman whom they wanted elected and it was so big they had to walk sidewise as they carried it forward; they were followed by hundreds of other men screaming and yelling, shouting and singing the "Houn' Dawg".... I saw men jump up on the seats and throw their hats in the air and shout: "What's the matter with Champ Clark?" Then, when those hats came down, other men would kick them back into the air, shouting at the top of their voices: "He's all right!!"... No hysteria about it—just patriotic loyalty, splendid manly devotion to principle. And so they went on and on until 5 o'clock in the morning—the whole night long. I saw men jump up on their seats and jump down again and run around in a ring. I saw two men run towards another man to hug him both at once and they split his coat up the middle of his back and sent him spinning around like a wheel. All this with the perfect poise of the legal male mind in politics! I have been to many women's conventions in my day but I never saw a woman leap up on a chair and take off her bonnet and toss it up in the air and shout: "What's the matter with" somebody. I never saw a woman knock another woman's bonnet off her head as she screamed, "She's all right!".... But we are willing to admit that we are emotional. I have actually seen women stand up and wave their handkerchiefs. I have even seen them take hold of hands and sing, "Blest be the tie that binds." Nobody doubts that women are excitable."
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