Doss

//dɒs// adj, name, noun, verb, slang

adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1
The avoidance of work. British, Ireland, countable, slang, uncountable
"I am going to have a doss tomorrow."
2
Abbreviation of dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate. abbreviation, alt-of, uncountable
3
plural of DoS form-of, plural
4
An easy piece of work. British, Ireland, countable, slang, uncountable
"Circumnavigating the world in a canoe is no doss."
5
A place to sleep in; a bed. British, Ireland, countable, dated, slang, uncountable

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6
Sleep. British, Ireland, broadly, countable, dated, slang, uncountable

Verb

1
To avoid work, shirk, etc. British, Ireland, intransitive
"I am going to doss tomorrow when the match is on."
2
sleep in a convenient place wordnet
3
To sleep, especially in the open or in a makeshift bed, commonly in a derelict building because one is homeless. Australia, British, intransitive, slang
"I normally have to doss in shop doorways or on park benches."

Adjective

1
Useless or lazy. Generally combined with expletive noun, especially cunt. Scotland, not-comparable
"Get a hauld o yersel, ya doss cunt!"
2
Good, desirable. Scotland, not-comparable
"The place is pure doss, like."

Proper Noun

1
A surname.

Synonyms

assembly-line housing beauty sleep bed beddy-bye bedstead bedtime

Antonyms

Example

"After the bailiff repossessed Tom's house, he was forced to doss down at a homeless shelter."

Etymology

Perhaps from Latin dorsum (“the back”), i.e. what one lies on when sleeping; perhaps from English dialect doss (“a hassock”).

Related phrases

doss off doss out doss about doss around doss down doss house doss off

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.