Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An old measure of length in France, containing 6 French feet, or 1.949 meters, equivalent to 6.395 English feet.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An old measure of length in France, containing six French feet, or about 6.3946 French feet.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a former French unit of length, corresponding to about 1.949 metres
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word toise.
Examples
-
During the founding of the Metric System, less than 20 years before the date of this work, the 'toise' was assigned a value of 1.949 meters, or a little over two yards.
Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 1 Alexander von Humboldt 1814
-
(Transcriber's Note: The 'toise' was introduced by Charlemagne in 790; it originally represented the distance between the fingertips of a man with outstretched arms, and is thus the same as the British 'fathom'.
Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 1 Alexander von Humboldt 1814
-
Kitteh, if yoo hav warmf an noms, a kleen littre boks, an toise, if tytee wytee Dood is kind to yoo, yur wai ahed ov teh HoamLess Kitteh Boiz!
Dere’s reely - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2010
-
Mai kittehs nawt be lyking teh shawp toise too much, tehy lubs teh laive pleytings moar, so wii bee fyndin teh reel-laive ded mauses unda teh frij!
no, no, NO! Mai mausie wuz - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2009
-
But only if we can get to within three hundred and fifty toise?
Sharpe's Havoc Cornwell, Bernard 2003
-
His broad, round back made him look like a tor - toise, an impression that his huge shoulders, deep chest, and narrow hips and waist did nothing to dispel.
Second Skin Lustbader, Eric 1995
-
There with the cat, waiting and wishing I could sleep, I rediscover my once-had-beens and should-have-dones, the tor-toise shell of pain and past all men drag with them forever.
Passage at Arms Cook, Glen 1985
-
French pilots still used the old-dashioned toise to measure depths, and the toise was slightly greater than the English fathom.
Hornblower And The Hotspur Forester, C. S. 1962
-
These six mortars, the largest that had ever been made, were six inches thick, used forty-five pounds of powder at a charge, and threw bombs fifteen hundred toises [A toise is six feet, and a league is three miles] in the air, and a league and a half out to sea, each bomb thrown costing the state three hundred francs.
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various
-
Il voit les masses deau, les toise et les mesure, 15
chained_bear commented on the word toise
"TOISE, fr. French a measure of six feet." (citation in list description)
October 9, 2008
fbharjo commented on the word toise
toise of peru
Can you fathom that?
February 10, 2013
qms commented on the word toise
Include among our Ernest's joys
Quaint measures only he employs,
Like the speed of light
In furlongs a fortnight
Or stature tallied in cubits and toise.
Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit
December 12, 2014
michaelt42 commented on the word toise
Is anyone aware if in French the fathom aspect of toise is used in the English sense of "understand"?
December 14, 2014