Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as force.
  • noun A simplified spelling of fosse.
  • noun A ditch; a canal; a stream or river artificially made or enlarged.
  • noun Specifically In fortification, a hollow place, ditch, or moat, commonly full of water, lying between the scarp and the counterscarp below the rampart, and turning round a fortified place or a post that is to be defended. See cut under castle.
  • noun In anatomy, same as fossa.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of fosse.
  • noun Waterfall (permanent flow of water over the edge of a cliff).

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

see fosse.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse fors.

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Examples

  • There Jane's parents lay, not in a grave to themselves, but buried amidst the nameless dead, in that part of the ground reserved for those who can purchase no more than a portion in the foss which is filled when its occupants reach statutable distance from the surface.

    Demos George Gissing 1880

  • Interestingly (to me) many of the waterfalls in northern England also have names that include the word "foss" due to Norse placenames.

    Everything2 New Writeups JediBix783 2009

  • So what is all the foss about Iran becoming a Nuclear power?

    Think Progress » Iran “suiciders” ready for action. 2006

  • And there is evermore great wind in that foss, that stirreth evermore the gravel, and maketh it trouble.

    The Travels of Sir John Mandeville 2004

  • Joan rode straight to the foss where she had received her wound, and, standing there in the rain of bolts and arrows, she ordered the paladin to let her long standard blow free, and to note when its fringes should touch the fortress.

    Mark Twain: A Biography 2003

  • Being in charge of all the timber traffic, he generally walked down to the long bridge — it was four hundred and sixty feet — across the foss, halted there, and stood looking up and down the river.

    A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings 2003

  • And at last the freed log slides out and away down the foss.

    A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings 2003

  • “You ought always to stand by a deafening foss when you feel like humming a tune.”

    A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings 2003

  • "Um ... eighty foss, " suggested Pommer, hesitantly peeking around the alien bulk.

    Icerigger Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1974

  • Oh, you can make a foss, yes, if you like -- you ged nossing!

    Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 102, January 23, 1892 Various

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