toss and turn

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

toss and turn (third-person singular simple present tosses and turns, present participle tossing and turning, simple past and past participle tossed and turned)

1. To be unable to settle into a comfortable sleeping position.

   I didn't get a wink of sleep. I was tossing and turning all night long.

   • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:

     for, after tossing and turning the greatest part of the night, and tormenting myself with the falsest notions and apprehensions of things, I fell, through mere fatigue, into a kind of delirious doze

Translations

be unable to settle into a comfortable sleeping position

• Catalan: remenar-se (ca)
• Dutch: woelen (nl)
• Icelandic: bylta sér
• Maori: okeoke
• Russian: воро́чаться (ru) impf (voróčatʹsja), поворо́чаться (ru) pf (povoróčatʹsja)
• Spanish: dar vueltas en la cama, revolverse (es), pasar la noche en duermevela, pasar la noche en dormivela, rodar (es), rolar (es) (Spain), retorcerse (es), escrucarse
• Swedish: vrida och vända
• Sylheti: ꠌꠣꠐꠤꠀꠘꠤ (saṭiani)