toise (toiz)

[ F.toise (ML. teisia, thaisia ), a fathom, a measure of about six feet (with variations in different places), = It. tes a, a stretching, You might have heard the contention within our bodies, brother Shandy, twenty toises . Sterne , Tristram Shandy, v. 38. toisech, toshach (toi's ech, tosh'ach), n. [Gael. toiseach, precedence, advantage, the beginning.] In the early history of Scotland, an officer or dignitary immediately under the maormor. The name appears in the "Book of Deir," along with that of the maormor, in grants of lands to the church as having some interest in the lands granted. The office was hereditary and attached to a cadet of the family of the maormor. toison (toi'zon; F. pron. two-zon'), n. [ tonsure.]