Toco

//ˈtəʊ.kəʊ// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Clipping of tocodynamometer. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping
  2. 2
    Corporal punishment; chastisement; beatings. British, obsolete, slang, uncountable

    "The School leaders come up furious, and administer toco to the wretched fags nearest at hand; they may well be angry, for it is all Lombard-street to a china orange that the School-house kick a goal with the ball touched in such a good place."

  3. 3
    a toco toucan

    "The Toco Toucan is surely among the most striking of the toucans, with its black-and-white body and enormous yellow-orange bill. [...] Tocos make loud rattling or clacking sounds with their bills."

Example

More examples

"The School leaders come up furious, and administer toco to the wretched fags nearest at hand; they may well be angry, for it is all Lombard-street to a china orange that the School-house kick a goal with the ball touched in such a good place."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Shortening.

Etymology 2

From Hindi ठोको (ṭhoko), second-person plural imperative form of ठोकना (ṭhoknā, “to strike, hit, beat”), from Sauraseni Prakrit *𑀞𑁄𑀓𑁆𑀓𑀤𑀺 (*ṭhokkadi), from Ashokan Prakrit *𑀞𑁄𑀓𑀢𑀺 (*ṭhokati).

Etymology 3

From Tupian.

Related phrases

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