Tossing

How to spell tossing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tossing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tossing mean?

1. verbThrowing something lightly or carelessly through the air.
2. verbLightly mixing food, such as a salad, by gently turning it over.
3. verbTurning over repeatedly and uneasily, especially when unable to sleep.

Tossing in a sentence

• The children were tossing a ball back and forth in the garden.

• Tossing the salad with a little dressing keeps every leaf coated.

• He spent the whole night tossing and turning before the interview.

• She settled the argument by tossing a coin.

• The chef finished the pasta by tossing it in the warm sauce.

• Worry left her tossing under the covers until dawn.

Where does tossing come from?

Language of origin: Celtic

The verb 'toss' first appears in English in the early 1500s, and its origins are genuinely uncertain, so its history is told with some caution. The likeliest source is a Celtic word from the Cornish or Welsh family meaning 'to jerk' or 'to shake about', which would fit the early sense of pitching something with a quick, loose motion. From the start it carried the idea of throwing lightly or letting something fly upward, as with a tossed coin, and it soon extended to the restless rolling of a ship on rough water and to a sleeper who turns repeatedly in bed. The present participle 'tossing' simply adds the ordinary '-ing' ending, and because 'toss' ends in a single short vowel followed by a single consonant, the final 's' is not doubled; the spelling stays straightforward as 'tossing'. The doubled 's' belongs to the root word itself rather than to the suffix.

How the word is built

• toss (to throw lightly)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)