- doss
- I. vba.to sleepI need a place to doss for a couple of nights.b.to move from place to place, sleeping in borrowed or low-class accommodation► 'Old Shawie's been dossing for the last three weeks.' (Recorded, London student, 1988)c.to relax, chill. A fashionable usage since 2000.A 19th-century term which may derive from the Latin dorsum, for 'back'. The verb forms, as opposed to the noun forms of the word, are mainly encountered in British English.II. n1a.a place to sleep, especially a tempo-rary, free and/or makeshift bed. This word, from 19th-century tramps' jargon, was probably originally a corruption of the Latin dorsum, for 'back'. Tramps are unlikely to have coined the term; it may have come from the jargon surrounding pugilism (meaning 'flat on one's back') which was a sport subscribed to by aris-tocrats and students, among others.1b.a period of sleep, a nap2.a very easy task, a pushover. In this sense the word, although based on the notion of lying down, may be influenced by 'toss', as in easily tossing off a piece of work.You mustn't see this purely as a doss.
Contemporary slang . 2014.