toss-up

See also: tossup and toss up

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Deverbal from toss up.

Pronunciation

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Noun

toss-up (plural toss-ups)

  1. (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.
  2. Either of two outcomes that are equally likely.
    • 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 151:
      “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.”
    • 2013 January 11, Tom Shone, The Guardian‎[1]:
      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.
  3. The toss of a coin used to decide some issue.

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