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The act of throwing upward; a rising and falling suddenly; a rolling and tumbling.

The act or punishment of tossing in a blanket. That affair of the blanketing happened to thee for the fault thou wast guilty of. Smollett.

A pole or beam used in Scottish games for tossing as a trial of strength.

Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency. We in dark dreams are tossing to and fro, Pine with regret, or sicken with despair. Keble. Before he [Bunyan] was ten, his sports were interrupted by fits of remorse and despair. Macaulay.

Evil in great degree; dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable. Dire was the tossing, deep the groans. Milton. Gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire. Milton.

A fork for tossing dung.

A throwing or tossing of the body; a shaking or agitation. Sir. W. Temple.

A frequent tossing or moving of the body; restlessness, as in delirium. Dunglison. Jactitation of marriage (Eng. Eccl. Law), a giving out or boasting by a party that he or she is married to another, whereby a common reputation of their matrimony may ensue. Blackstone.

The act of tossing, throwing, or hurling, as spears. Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire. Milton.

also jook and jouk.] The money merchant was so proud of his trust that he went juking and tossing of his head. L' Estrange.

The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.

of something from the hand; as, a good pitch in quoits. Pitch and toss, a game played by tossing up a coin, and calling "Heads or tails;" hence: To play pitch and toss with (anything), to be careless or trust to luck about it. "To play pitch and toss with the property of the country." G. Eliot. -- Pitch farthing. See…

To fry lightly and quickly, as meat, by turning ot tossing it over frequently in a hot pan greased with a little fat.

Full of shoals, or shallow places. The tossing vessel sailed on shoaly ground. Dryden.

Abounding in surges; surgy. "Tossing the surgeful tides." Drayton.

, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tossed (; (less properly Tost ); p. pr. & vb. n. Tossing.] Etym: [ W. tosiaw, tosio, to jerk, toss, snatch, tosa quick jerk, a toss, a snatch. ]

Tossing the head, as in scorn or pride; hence, proud; contemptuous; scornful; affectedly indifferent; as, a tossy commonplace. [R.] C. Kingsley.