A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met,
And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,
That could have better sewed than Philomel.
Act ii. sc. 4 (1593).
Ter´il (Sir Walter). The king exacts an oath from Sir Walter to send his bride, Cælestina, to court on her wedding night. Her father, to save her honor, gives her a mixture supposed to be poison, but in reality only a sleeping draught, from which she awakes in due time, to the amusement of the king and delight of her husband.--Thomas Dekker, Satiromastix (1602).
Termagant, an imaginary being, supposed by the crusaders to be a Mohammedan deity. In the Old Moralities the degree of rant was the measure of the wickedness of the character portrayed; so Pontius Pilate, Herod, Judas Iscariot, Termagant, the tyrant, Sin, and so on, were all ranting parts.
I would have such a fellow whipped for o’er-doing Termagant; it out-Herods Herod, pray you, avoid it.--Shakespeare, Hamlet, act iii. sc. 2 (1596).
Termagant, the maid of Harriet Quidnunc. She uses most wonderful words, as paradropsical for “rhapsodical,” perjured for “assured,” phisology for “philology,” curacy for “accuracy,” fignification for “signification,” importation for “import,” anecdote for “antidote,” infirmaries for “infirmities,” intimidate for “intimate.”--Murphy, The Upholsterer (1758).
Ter´meros, a robber of Peloponnesos, who killed his victims by cracking their skulls against his own.
Termosi´ris, a priest of Apollo, in Egypt; wise, prudent, cheerful, and courteous.--Fénelon, Télémaque, ii. (1700).