sb. In 6 toyse. [a. F. toise:—OF. teise = It. tesa:—Late L. tēsa, tensa (sc. brachia) ‘the outstretched arms,’ taken as a fem. sing.: see also the ME. TEISE, TAISE.] A French lineal measure of 6 French feet, roughly equal to 1.949 meters, or 62/5 English feet. Chiefly in military use. Square toise, a measure = about 41/2 square yards.
1598. Dallington, Meth. Trav., B iv b. This great City … is within ten Toyses as large as Paris.
1644. Evelyn, Diary, 7 March. The Greate Garden, 180 toises long and 154 wide.
1759. trans. Duhamel’s Husb., II. xi. (1762), 150. 1344 square toises of 36 feet.
1823. Byron, Juan, VIII. vii. The column order’d on the assault scarce pass’d Beyond the Russian batteries a few toises [rhyme noises].
1904. Quiller-Couch, Fort Amity, xiii. It was quadrilateral with a frontage of fifty toises.
Hence Toise v. rare [ad. Fr. toiser] trans., to measure with the eye, to eye from head to foot.
1889. Stevenson, Master of B., iv. At the same time he had a better look at me, toised me a second time sharply, and then smiled. Ibid. (a. 1894), St. Ives, xix. I am acquainted also with the properties of a pair of pistols, said I, toising him.
