toss-up en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Etymology
Deverbal from toss up, suggesting tossing a coin.
Meanings
-
(idiomatic) A decision in which neither choice is clearly favorable or unfavorable, or for which the outcome does not matter.
It's really a toss-up between the red skirt with blue stripes and the blue skirt with red stripes. They both look good and fit well.
But at the moment when everything was going so well, there came one of those unforeseeable chances that reduce even the most circumspectly arranged plots to the significance of a mere toss-up.
1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:
-
Either of two outcomes that are equally likely.
“He’ll do,” said the Doctor, quietly. “It must have been a toss-up all through the night. ’Think you’re to be congratulated on this case.”
1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 151:No longer is the best picture going to be a toss-up between that troika of national-historical heavies: Argo, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty. Instead, a warm welcome back for Life of Pi, widely dismissed by many as "this year's Hugo" but this column's dark-horse pick from October.
2013 January 11, Tom Shone, The Guardian:
- The toss of a coin used to decide some issue.
- A toss-up question.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| tossup | alternative | lexicographic | |
| toss-ups | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Translations (14)
it incerto (a decision in which neither choice is clearly favorable or unfavorable, or for which the outcome does not matter) · hu kétesélyes (either of two outcomes that are equally likely) · cs padesát na padesát (either of two outcomes that are equally likely) · es probabilidades iguales / igualadas (either of two outcomes that are equally likely) · hu kérdéses (either of two outcomes that are equally likely) · es sorteamiento (either of two outcomes that are equally likely) · pl but see na dwoje babka wróżyła (either of two outcomes that are equally likely) · hu egyre megy (a decision in which neither choice is clearly favorable or unfavorable, or for which the outcome does not matter) · hu mindegy (a decision in which neither choice is clearly favorable or unfavorable, or for which the outcome does not matter) · es posibilidades igualmente probables (either of two outcomes that are equally likely) · hu pénzfeldobás (the toss of a coin used to decide some issue) · es posibilidades igual de probables (either of two outcomes that are equally likely) · es sorteo (either of two outcomes that are equally likely) · bg жребий (the toss of a coin used to decide some issue)