1583. Ascham, Scholemaster, iv. 35. A certain friar tossing the pot, and drinking very often at the table was reprehended by the priour.
1592. Nashe, Summer's Last Will [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), viii. 59]. Rise up, Sir Robert Toss-pot [Here he dubs Will Summer with the Black-Jack].
1599. Hall, Satires, I. ii. 26. Now toss they bowls of Bacchus' boiling blood.
[?] Robin Hood [Child, Ballads, v. 375]. For in a brave vein they tossed off the bouls.
d. 1637. P. Holland, Plinie, xxiii. xviii. Our lustie toss-pots and swill-bowls.
1648-50. Braithwait, Barnaby's Jo., II. 57. There I tossed it with my Skinkers.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 1. v. Thus became Tom Tosspot rich.
1670. Cotton, Virgil Travestie (1770), 129. Away he flies Ere Toss-pot could unglue his eyes.
1695. Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 15. I mean to toss a can, and remember my sweetheart afore I turn in.
1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge, vi. 201. We toss about the never-failing Cann, We drink and piss . . . and drink to piss again.
1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 'Epith. P. Ægidus.' The husband . . . has been call'd Blockhead, Toss-Pot, Swill-Tub.
1820. Lamb, Two Races of Men. A good part he drank away (for he was an excellent toss-pot).
1821. Egan, Life in London, 75. The soldiers . . . were tossing off the heavy wet and spirits.
1837. Marryat, Snarleyyow, xxxii. The corporal produced the bottle and the glass, poured it out, made his military salute, and tossed it off.
1841. Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, xiii. To be looked upon as a common pipe-smoker, beer-bibber . . . and toss-pot.
Also Colloquialisms and Phrases: To toss out=(1) to dress hurriedly, and (2) to depart hastily; TO TOSS OFF = (1) see verb supra; (2) to do, execute, or turn out quickly : as to toss OFF a poem, a task, or musical performance; (3) to while away (of time), to dispose of easily; and (4) = to masturbate (venery); TO TOSS UP (or TO TOSS) = (1) to decide a matter by 'skying' a coin (Grose): also as subs. (or toss-up) = an even chance, and TO win the toss = to be successful; to toss up = (2) to prepare rough and readily (of food).
[?] Richard Cœur de Leon [Weber, Met. Rom., II. 170]. Lordynges, now ye have herd . . . How Kyng Richard with his maystry Wan the toss off Sudan Turry.
c. 1692. King, Vestry. On Saturday stew'd beef, with something nice, Provided quick, and toss'd up in a trice.
1759. Goldsmith, Bee, No. 2. I . . . walked behind a damsel tossed out in all the gaiety of fifteen; her dress was loose, unstudied, and seemed the result of conscious beauty.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 407. It is a toss up who fails and who succeeds: the wit of to-day is the blockhead of to-morrow.
1851. Hawthorne, Seven Gables, vii. Poor Hepzibah was seeking for some . . . tit-bit which . . . she might toss up for breakfast.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lon. Lab., 1. 206. To toss the pieman is a favourite pastime with costermongers' boys, and all that class. If the pieman wins the toss he receives a penny without giving a pie; if he lose, he hands over a pie for nothing. Ibid. II. 412. They spend . . . what money they may have in tossing for beer, till they are either drunk or penniless.
1853. Dickens, Bleak House, xiii. 'I haven't the least idea,' said Richard, musing, 'what I had better be. Except that I am quite sure I don't want to go into the Church, it's a toss-up.'
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, i. 5. Hasn't old Brooke won the toss, with his lucky halfpenny, and got choice of goals?
1870. Judd, Margaret, ii. 1. Have you read Cynthia? It is a delightful thing to toss off a dull hour with.
1872. Eliot, Middlemarch, lxxxiii. It is a mere toss-up whether I shall ever do more than keep myself decently.
