Toss vs Mess - What's the difference?
toss | mess |
A throw, a lob, of a ball etc., with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care.
(cricket, football) The toss of a coin before a cricket match in order to decide who bats first, or before a football match in order to decide the direction of play.
(British, slang) A jot, in the phrase 'give a toss'.
To throw with an initial upward direction.
To lift with a sudden or violent motion.
* Addison
To agitate; to make restless.
* Milton
To subject to trials; to harass.
* Herbert
To flip a coin, to decide a point of contention.
To discard: to toss out
To stir or mix (a salad).
(British, vulgar, slang) To masturbate
(informal) To search (a room or a cell), sometimes leaving visible disorder, as for valuables or evidence of a crime.
* 2003 , Joseph Wambaugh, Fire Lover , p. 258:
* 2009 , , Red Dragon :
* 2011 , Linda Howard, Kill and Tell: A Novel :
To roll and tumble; to be in violent commotion.
To be tossed, as a fleet on the ocean.
(obsolete) To keep in play; to tumble over.
To peak (the oars), to lift them from the rowlocks and hold them perpendicularly, the handle resting on the bottom of the boat.
(obsolete) Mass; church service.
A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; also, the food given to an animal at one time.
* Milton
A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common; especially, persons in the military or naval service who eat at the same table.
* 1610 , , IV. iv. 11:
A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
(US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
(label) To take meals with a mess.
(label) To belong to a mess.
(label) To eat (with others).
(label) To supply with a mess.
A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding; a disorder.
(label) A large quantity or number.
(label) Excrement.
(label) To make a mess of.
(label) To throw into confusion.
(label) To interfere.
In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between toss and mess
is that toss is (obsolete) to keep in play; to tumble over while mess is (obsolete) mass; church service.As nouns the difference between toss and mess
is that toss is a throw, a lob, of a ball etc, with an initial upward direction, particularly with a lack of care while mess is (obsolete) mass; church service or mess can be a disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding; a disorder.As verbs the difference between toss and mess
is that toss is to throw with an initial upward direction while mess is (label) to take meals with a mess or mess can be (label) to make a mess of.toss
English
Noun
(es)- I couldn't give a toss about her.
Derived terms
* argue the tossVerb
- Toss it over here!
- to toss the head
- He tossed his arm aloft, and proudly told me, / He would not stay.
- Calm region once, / And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent.
- Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men.
- I'll toss you for it.
- ''I don't need it anymore, you can just toss it.
- to toss''' a salad; a '''tossed salad.
- "Someone tossed just his living room and bedroom." / "They probably found what they were looking for."
- John Orr had occasion to complain in writing to the senior supervisor that his Playboy and Penthouse magazines had been stolen by deputies. And he believed that was what prompted a random search of his cell for contraband. He was stripped, handcuffed, and forced to watch as they tossed his cell .
- Rankin and Willingham, when they tossed his cell , they took Polaroids so they could get everything back in place.
- Hayes had watched him toss a room before. He had tapped walls, gotten down on his hands and knees and studied the floor, inspected books and lamps and bric-abrac.
- tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep
- (Shakespeare)
- to spend four years in tossing the rules of grammar
- (Ascham)
See also
* tosser * toss off * toss in * toss and turnAnagrams
* * *mess
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), partly from (etyl) . More at (m); see also (m).Noun
(es)- A mess of pottage.
- At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes .
- the wardroom mess
- But that our feasts / In every mess have folly, and the feeders / Digest it with accustom,
- (Latimer)