Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
tossed salad

tossed salad

6 1.9
A salad made by mixing vegetables with a dressing
  • noun
  • /tɔst ˈsæləd/
translation icon : ensalada mixta
  • The Roman salad looked very much like a tossed salad, except that it had green olives and wedges of artichoke heart in with the cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots, and red leaf lettuce.
  • tossed salad and scrambled eggs
  • bread and a tossed salad
  • tossed salad and cranberry sauce

Examples

  • I would love to have a tossed salad for lunch today, with plenty of fresh vegetables.

  • She had made a green bean casserole with mushrooms and a tossed salad that had shredded raw beets, carrots, and even pine nuts.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • - I'd like a tossed salad, please.

    Waiting... (2005)

  • Just before he hung up, he added a small tossed salad and a coffee to the order.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Sometimes what I really want is baked fish and tossed salad.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • There's a tossed salad in the fridge.

    Jacob's Ladder (1990)

  • Now, in the next hour, Joyce will have to consume a tossed salad, with dressing on the side...

    The Guilt Trip (2012)

  • I scrape the corn into a dish, then I fix us a tossed salad.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • I eat a lot of tossed salad dinners with some of my wife's family.

    Blog text (14)

  • I made the second dish for lunch, but these spinach-stuffed mushrooms would be good for dinner if you had a nice tossed salad on the side.

    Blog text (1)

Synonyms

salad
vstossed salad
550 1.0

A cold dish of small pieces of vegetables often served with a dressing

is mixed together with dressing just before serving
green salad
vstossed salad
7 1.0

A cold dish of raw green leaves people often eat with oil and vinegar

is broader, including various ingredients not just leafy vegetables

Surface Forms

tossed salad singular
tossed salads plural

Morphology

toss + salad

The meaning 'a salad made by mixing various ingredients' is directly and predictably derived from combining 'toss' (to lift/turn to mix) with 'salad' (a mixed vegetable dish); the past participle 'tossed' simply describes the preparation method. This participle+noun cooking pattern is common and cross-linguistically familiar, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will understand the MWE.

Etymology

Tossed salad comes from a kitchen picture where cooks would toss the salad in a bowl so the dressing spreads over the leaves. So a tossed salad means a salad that is 'mixed' and 'dressed' before serving.