What does "tosh" mean?
Copper; items made of copper.
Tosh
/tɒʃ/ adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Copper; items made of copper.
- Grammar: tosh is listed as adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: baloney, nonsense, bilgewater, boloney.
- Useful contrasts: fact, reality, truth.
- Usage evidence: Tom was able to make the biggest load of tosh sound convincing enough that everyone believed him.
How to use "tosh"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "tosh" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "tosh" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "tosh" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "tosh" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "tosh" is acting as adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "baloney" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "tosh", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Copper; items made of copper. British, obsolete, slang, uncountable
"The sewer-hunters were formerly, and indeed are still, called by the name of "Toshers," the articles which they pick up in the course of their wanderings along shore being known among themselves by the general term "tosh," a word more particularly applied by them to anything made of copper."
- 2 A half-crown coin; its value British, countable, obsolete, slang
"tush or tosh. Money: Cockney: late C.19–20. Ex: tusheroon... But H. errs, I believe: he should mean half-a-crown, for tusheroon and its C.20 variant tossaroon (2s. 6d.) are manifest corruptions of Lingua Franca MADZA CAROON."
- 3 pretentious or silly talk or writing wordnet
- 4 Valuables retrieved from drains and sewers. British, rare, slang, uncountable
"I am present engaged in fishing for tosh in the sewers of Blastburn."
- 5 A crown coin; its value British, countable, obsolete, slang
"Half-a-crown is known as an alderman, half a bull, half a tusheroon, and a madza caroon; whilst a crown piece, or five shillings, may be called either a bull, or a caroon, or a cartwheel, or a coachwheel, or a thick-un, or a tusheroon."
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 Rubbish, trash, (now especially) nonsense, bosh, balderdash British, slang, uncountable
"To think what I've gone through to hear that man! Frightful tosh it'll be, too."
- 7 Any money, particularly pre-decimalization British coinage British, archaic, slang, uncountable
- 8 A bath or foot pan UK, countable
"A ‘tosh’ pan... is also provided."
- 9 Easy bowling derogatory, slang, uncountable
"Among the recent neologisms of the cricket field is ‘tosh’, which means bowling of contemptible easiness."
- 10 Used as a form of address. UK, humorous, slang, uncountable
"'Ere, tosh, you bin at Cha'ham?"
Verb
- 1 To steal copper, particularly from ship hulls British, obsolete, slang
"Toshing, a cant word for stealing copper sheathing from vessels' bottoms, or from dock-yard stores."
- 2 To make ‘tosh’: to tidy, to trim. Scotland
"Hoo she wad try to tosh up... her breest."
- 3 To search for valuables in sewers British, slang, uncommon
"You tend to the toshing, let Mester Hobday tend to the dealing."
- 4 To use a tosh-pan, either to wash, to splash, or to "bath" UK
"‘Toshing’ was the name given to a punishment inflicted by the cadets on any one of their number who made himself obnoxious. The victim, dressed in full uniform, was forced to run the gauntlet of his brother cadets, who, as he passed, emptied the contents of their ‘tosh-cans’ (small baths holding about three gallons of water) over the wretched lad's head."
Adjective
- 1 Tight. Scotland, obsolete
"Tosh, tight, neat."
- 2 Neat, clean; tidy, trim. Scotland
"I gang ay fou clean and fou tosh As a' the neighbours can tell."
- 3 Comfortable, agreeable; friendly, intimate. Scotland
"We were a very tosh and agreeable company."
Adverb
- 1 Toshly: neatly, tidily Scotland
"Shouther your arms!—O! had them tosh on, And not athraw!"
Proper Noun
- 1 Acronym of The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
- 2 A surname.
- 3 A Hassidic community
- 4 Ellipsis of Kiryas Tosh: a neighbourhood of Boisbriand, Quebec, Canada. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
- 5 Synonym of Nyírtass (Nyírtass); A village in Hungary
Example
"Tom was able to make the biggest load of tosh sound convincing enough that everyone believed him."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "tosh"?
Common synonyms include: baloney, nonsense, bilgewater, boloney, bosh, criticize.
How do you use "tosh" in a sentence?
Tom was able to make the biggest load of tosh sound convincing enough that everyone believed him.
How do you pronounce "tosh"?
Pronounced /tɒʃ/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From 19th-century British thieves' cant, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from *tarsh, a metathetic alteration of trash; or from toss. Sense of nonsense possibly influenced by tush (“nonsense! tsk tsk!”) attested from 15th century.
Etymology 2
Compare Old French tonce (“shorn, clipped”) and English tonsure.
Etymology 3
From 19th-century British slang tosheroon, from or alongside tusheroon, of uncertain derivation from British slang caroon (“crown, a 5-shilling silver coin”), from Sabir and (originally) Italian corona (“crown”). The term was either derived from or influenced by madza caroon, the British slang for the Sabir and Italian mezzo corona (“half-crown”), possibly under influence from tosh (“copper items; valuables”) above or from the half-crown's value of two shillings & sixpence.
Etymology 4
From Yiddish טאהש (Tosh), from Hebrew טאהש (Tash).