tosh

Etymology 1

From 19th-century British thieves' cant, of uncertain origin. Sense of nonsense possibly influenced by tush (“nonsense! tsk tsk!”) attested from 15th century.

noun

1. (uncountable, Britain, slang, obsolete) Copper; items made of copper.
2. (uncountable, chiefly Britain, slang, rare) Valuables retrieved from drains and sewers.
   I am present engaged in fishing for tosh in the sewers of Blastburn. 1974, Joan Aiken, Midnight is a Place, page 164
3. (chiefly Britain, slang, uncountable) Rubbish, trash, (now especially) nonsense, bosh, balderdash
   To think what I've gone through to hear that man! Frightful tosh it'll be, too. October 26, 1892, Oxford University Magazine, number 26/1
4. (UK, archaic school slang, countable) A bath or foot pan
   A ‘tosh’ pan... is also provided. 1881, Leathes in C.E. Pascoe, Everyday Life in our Public Schools, ii. 20
   We call a tub a tosh. 1905, H. A. Vachell, Hill, section I
5. (cricket, slang, derogatory, uncountable) Easy bowling
   Among the recent neologisms of the cricket field is ‘tosh’, which means bowling of contemptible easiness. 1898 June 25, Tit-Bits, 252/3
6. (UK, humorous slang, uncountable) Used as a form of address.
   'Ere, tosh, you bin at Cha'ham? 1954, E. Hyams, Stories & Cream, section 175

verb

1. (Britain, obsolete slang) To steal copper, particularly from ship hulls
   1867, W. H. Smyth, Sailor's Word-book:
   Toshing, a cant word for stealing copper sheathing from vessels' bottoms, or from dock-yard stores.
2. (chiefly Britain, uncommon slang) To search for valuables in sewers
   You tend to the toshing, let Mester Hobday tend to the dealing. 1974, J. Aiken, Midnight is Place, vi. 180
3. (UK, archaic school slang) To use a tosh-pan, either to wash, to splash, or to "bath"
   ‘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. 1883, J.P. Groves, From Cadet to Captain, iii. 227
   He toshed his house beak by mistake, and got three hundred. 1903, J. S. Farmer et al., Slang, VII. 171/1

Etymology 2

Compare Old French tonce (“shorn, clipped”) and English tonsure.

adj

1. (Scotland, obsolete) Tight.
   Tosh, tight, neat. 1776, D. Herd, Ancient & Modern Scottish Songs
2. (Scotland) Neat, clean; tidy, trim.
   I gang ay fou clean and fou tosh As a' the neighbours can tell. 1794, J. Ritson, Scottish Songs, I. 99
3. (Scotland) Comfortable, agreeable; friendly, intimate.
   We were a very tosh and agreeable company. 1821, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 10 4

adv

1. (Scotland) Toshly: neatly, tidily
   Shouther your arms!—O! had them tosh on, And not athraw! 1808, J. Mayne, Siller Gun, i. 20

verb

1. (Scotland) To make ‘tosh’: to tidy, to trim.
   Hoo she wad try to tosh up... her breest. 1826 November, J. Wilson, Noctes Ambrosianae, xxix, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 788

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.

noun

1. (Britain, obsolete slang, countable) A half-crown coin; its value
   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. 1961, Eric Partridge, The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang
   Here's a tosh to buy yourself some beer. 1961, J. Maclaren-Ross, Doomsday Book, i. v. 63
2. (Britain, obsolete slang, countable) A crown coin; its value
   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. 1859, J.C. Hotten, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words
   ‘Tush’, for money, would be an abbreviation of ‘tusheroon’, which in old cant, and also in tinker dialect, signified a crown. 1912, J.W. Horsley, I Remember, xii. 253
3. (Britain, archaic slang, uncountable) Any money, particularly pre-decimalization British coinage