toss and turn

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English

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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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

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