Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To pull about or asunder; touse.
  • Specifically To tease (wool).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb Obs.or Prov. Eng. To tease, or comb, as wool.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To pull apart or asunder; touse.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English tosen, from Old English *tāsan ("to tease"), from Proto-Germanic *taisanan (“to tug, separate, shred”), from Proto-Indo-European *dāy- (“to divide, separate”). Cognate with Old High German zeisan ("to tease, pick wool"). Related also to Dutch tezen ("to draw, pull, scratch"), Danish tæse ("to tease"), Old English tǣsan ("to tease"). More at tease.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word tose.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.