Meanings
comparative more tozy · superlative most tozy · alternative tosie · alternative tosy
- obsoletepossiblySlightly intoxicated; tipsy.
What puir man, whan he's tozy, But spends as he ware bein and cozy?
1794, Poems Eng., Sc., & Lat., 952 more examples
The Magistrates there came into prison, and said, This day you are all to die, and if any of you will undertake to be executioner to the rest, he shall have his life […] The Magistrates gave him Drink and kept him tozy until the murder was over.
1727, P. Walker, R. Cameron in Biogr. Presbyt. (1827) I, 278The truth, however, was, that the worthy elder had been rendered somewhat tozy by the minister's toddy, […]
1821, "The Ayrshire Legatees", in Blackwood's Magazine (February 1821), volume 8, page 506
Origin
Unclear. Various dictionaries mention an old dialectal word tozy, tosy meaning "cosy, cozy", which may be from toze, tose + -y, but it is not clear if this is related to the "intoxicated" sense.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
tozy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tozy
“tozy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tozy. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tozy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tozy.
Source: tozy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.