toss-up n.
1. (also toss) a wager (esp. fig.) in which chances are even and either eventuality is equally likely [SE toss up coins].
![]() | Songs Comic and Satyrical 73: Life and Death at a stand, / A toss-up which party will take us. | ‘The Toper’ in|
![]() | Castle Rackrent (1832) 39: It’s a toss up with me which I should marry this minute, her or Mr. Moneygawl of Mount Juliet’s town’s daughter. | |
![]() | Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) IV 216: It is a toss up who fails and who succeeds: the wit of to-day is the blockhead of tomorrow. | (trans.)|
![]() | Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 166: It was a toss-up whether they turned out well or ill. | |
![]() | (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor I 482/1: I has a toss up sometimes when I has a odd copper for it. | |
![]() | Knocking About in N.Z. 123: It was a toss-up for his life; but he was let off eventually with a fearful ‘hiding.’. | |
![]() | Police Sergeant C 21 87: He and I were so evenly matched that it was always a toss up who should win. | |
![]() | Adventures of Captain Kettle 283: It was quite a toss-up even then. | |
![]() | Boy’s Own Paper 27 Apr. 468: It was a ‘toss up,’ as regards distance, whether to the right or left. | |
![]() | Hist. of Mr Polly (1946) 125: It’s a toss up. The hotter come, the sooner cold. | |
![]() | Clicking of Cuthbert 129: It is always a toss-up which of us wins. | |
![]() | Dict. Amer. Sl. 57: toss or toss up. An even chance. | |
![]() | Penguin New Writing No. 30 188: It was a toss up: go straight back to the company or make a detour down the hill. | Snow in Lehmann|
![]() | Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 7: Having won the toss-up for choice, he led off on gins. | |
![]() | Sweet Ride 191: It’s still a toss-up on what they’re going to do. | |
![]() | Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 105: It’s a toss-up who duffs me first – the law or the hounds. | |
![]() | Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 175: Mind you, it’s a toss-up as to who’d give me a harder time. | |
![]() | Indep. Rev. 2 July 15: It’s a toss-up whether mankind is the richer for their perseverance. Probably not. | |
![]() | Guardian 28 Jan. 32: Favourite drink: Toss-up between Indonesian lager top with a vodka and Red Bull chaser, or Southern Comfort and Irn Bru. | |
![]() | Life 371: Ronnie [Wood] wasn’t necessarily a shoo-in as our new guitarist [...] and it was really a toss-up. |
2. (drugs) a woman who trades sex for crack cocaine or for money to buy crack cocaine.
![]() | ONDCP Street Terms 21: Toss up — Crack Cocaine; female who trades sex for crack or money to buy crack. |
3. (Aus.) gang sex, voluntary or coerced.
![]() | Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 131: TOSS UP — Chop up, mob job or gang bang. |
4. (Aus.) a promiscuous woman; also attrib. [SE toss, to throw; she throws herself ‘up to’ the man].
![]() | How to Shoot Friends 117: I’ve seen a truckload of so-called strippers, most of them gang bang toss-ups pretending to be Gypsy Rose Lee. | |
![]() | Chopper 4 76: From what I’ve seen, half the toss up molls in Australia live in Tassie. |