doss
Americannoun
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a place to sleep, especially in a cheap lodging house.
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I had some great doss last night, and I'm feeling pretty good today.
verb (used without object)
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dosses,
present (3rd person singular)
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dossed,
past participle, past
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dossing
present participle
verb
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to sleep, esp in a dosshouse
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to pass time aimlessly
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dosssimple
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dossessimple
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have dossedperfect
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has dossedperfect
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am dossingprogressive
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are dossingprogressive
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is dossingprogressive
-
have been dossingperfect progressive
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has been dossingperfect progressive
Past
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dossedsimple
-
had dossedperfect
-
was dossingprogressive
-
were dossingprogressive
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had been dossingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of doss
First recorded in 1775–85; origin obscure; perhaps from French dos, from Latin dorsum, dossum “back, ridge”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"The weather means they have not had much to do but doss around eating good grass," Mrs McGrath said.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2021
“I was raised with the idea that the arts were a doss – but the arts are vital,” he continues.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 30, 2016
The newcomers doss down in Atma's former police station.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 25, 2012
“Then”—she pointed to the bonnet of the tractor—“you can doss there.”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
One time, Pluto Noak opened the emergency exit for a doss.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
I don’t know but what it might be that there smooth young ’un who dosses hisself up to look like an English gent.
From Trapped by Malays A Tale of Bayonet and Kris by Steven Spurrier
He grew up in Clydebank, dossed around at school and left with no qualifications.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 29, 2021
I’ve been whalin’ up the Lachlan, and I’ve dossed on Cooper’s Creek, And once I rung Cudjingie shed, and blued it in a week.
From The Old Bush Songs by A. B. (Andrew Barton) Paterson
We reached this spot just as night was falling, and "dossed" down.
From Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer by W. C. (William Charles) Scully
You couldn't put him into my seat and fly him to Kot Ghazi while I dossed down with the camel and waited for you to come for me.
From Snake and Sword A Novel by Percival Christopher Wren
He had got his battery into position at about two o'clock, and they had dossed down beside the guns.
From Pushed and the Return Push by George Herbert Fosdike Nichols
Now, in a Tomb Raider movie out this week, Alicia Vikander plays a tearaway Croft dossing around in London.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 14, 2018
When I first heard he went missing, I thought he was just dossing around in someone's house.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2016
And by the way, we’re nicking this castle you’ve been dossing in and giving it to 100 poor families.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 13, 2014
It was Matilde and, if her reasoning might have been influenced by the possibility of Mourinho dossing about the lounge during the week, it was undoubtedly sound.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 9, 2014
But Gary Drake's Ross Wilcox's cousin so they're always dossing about together.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
