†toss, tosses, pl. (?). Massinger, Picture, ii. 2 (Honoria).
tote, to look, gaze; ‘How often dyd I tote Upon her prety fote’, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 1146; spelt toote, Speke Parrot, 12; toot, Peele, Arraignment of Paris, i. 2 (Oenone). In prov. use in north of England down to Warw. in the sense of to peep and pry about, see EDD. (s.v. Toot, vb.2). ME. toten (P. Plowman, B. xv. 22), OE. tōtian, to look, gaze.
tote, to project, stick out; ‘Your tail toteth out behind’, The Four Elements, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 42; ‘A toting huge swelling ruff’, Howell’s Letters, bk. i, sect. 3, let. 31, § 7. In prov. use in the north country, also in Warw., see EDD. (s.v. Toot, vb.2 3).
toter, a player upon the horn. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 3 (Pan); toater, Fletcher, Maid in a Mill, iii. 1 (end). See EDD. (s.v. Toot, vb.1).
tother: the tother, for thet other, the other. See [tone].
toto, variant of [too-too], q.v.
totters, tatters, rags. Ford, Sun’s Darling, i. 1 (Folly’s song); tottered, tattered, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5. 6; Edward II, ii. 3. 21; Richard II, iii. 3. 52. Norw. dial. totra, a rag, totror, pl. rags, also taltra(r) (Aasen).
totty, unsteady, confused in thought. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 39; Sheph. Kal., Feb., 55. In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). ME. toty: ‘Myn heed is toty of my swink to-night’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 4253).
touch, a trait or feature; ‘One touch of nature makes the whole world kin’, Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 175; ‘Evill touches’, Ascham, Scholemaster, 48. Touch = Touchstone, Richard III, iv. 2. 8; used also fig. with reference to the trial of gold, 1 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 10.
touch, often used for any costly marble; properly the basanites of the Greeks, a very hard black granite. It obtained the name touch from being used as a test for gold. It was often written tutch or tuch; ‘He built this house of tutch and alabaster’, Harington, tr. Ariosto, xliii. 14; ‘With alabaster, tuch and porphyry adorned’, Drayton, Pol. xvi. 45; ‘Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show of touch or marble’, B. Jonson, Forest, B. ii. 2. See Nares. F. pierre de touche, ‘sorte de pierre, ainsi appelée, parce qu’on s’en sert pour éprouver l’or et l’argent en les y frottant’ (Dict. de l’Acad., 1762).