toss
part of speech
verb, noun (toss, tosses, tossed, tossing)
meaning for a pupil
1) To toss means to throw something lightly: toss the ball to me. tree →
2) A coin toss is throwing a coin to see which side lands up, heads or tails. tree →
3) To toss a salad is to mix it gently. tree →
4) To toss and turn is to move about in bed and not sleep. tree →
5) To toss something out is to throw it away. tree →
sense in the lessons
Maths: throws counted; coin tosses with chances: a coin has 2 sides, so heads and tails are equally likely; tails = tosses − heads. Sport: the toss decides who starts a game. Everyday: toss a pancake, toss the salad, «it's a toss-up» (either could happen).
examples
- She tossed the ball 12 times. tree →
- He tosses a coin 10 times and gets 6 heads. tree →
- They tossed 3 bags into the bin. tree →
- How many tosses were tails? tree →
- The captain won the toss and chose to bat first. tree →
- Dad tossed the pancake high in the air. tree →
- I tossed and turned all night. tree →
- Toss the salad with a little oil. tree →
- He tossed it gayly to the boy. tree →
note
Regular: tossed; plural tosses. Counts throws. Trap: if heads and tails are both counted, tails = tosses − heads. Trap: past coin tosses do not change the next one; each toss is still a 1 in 2 chance.
In the corpora
- Think of a playground argument: you can toss a coin, or you can ask witnesses what they saw.
- Who is this like the Nile that riseth up, like the rivers whose waters toss themselves?
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «toss» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.