team: Strictly a team consists of two or more beasts of burden harnessed together, but in the United States the word is extended to cover “team and accessories,” the latter being the harness or equipment, together with the vehicle to which the animals are attached.
tell on: A common expression with children used in the sense of “to inform against a person,” is derived from Biblical use (I Sam. xxvii. 11). The phrase lost to literary English has now no equivalent.
temper, anger, wrath: Words in the use of which discrimination should be used. Temper is disposition or constitution of the mind, especially in relation to the affections or the passions; anger is violence or vindicated passion aroused by real or imaginary insult or injury. One may have an irritable temper without being necessarily angry. Wrath is deep, determined, and lasting anger, usually accompanied by outward expression of displeasure. Anger may be only inward feeling without the outward expression of passion.
tender should not be used for “give.” You tender a payment; give a reception.
testimony. Compare [EVIDENCE].
than as a conjunction should be used only in the case of direct comparison; as, “I esteem this more than that.” When the comparison is merely implied, or covered by the verb, as by the verb prefer, than should not be used. See [PREFER].
thanks has been condemned as an undignified colloquialism bordering on incivility; but what serious objection is there to this pithy acknowledgment of obligation or gratitude? It has been said that Shakespeare made use of the expression no fewer than fifty-five times, and that the Bible four times contains the utterance “thanks be to God,” Shakespeare’s use of the word with “much” as an adjective is indeed most forcible—“for this relief much thanks.”
than me should never be used for than I. Say, “He is taller than I”; not “He is taller than me.”
than whom: A phrase objected to by some grammatical critics, in such locutions as “Cromwell, than whom no man was better skilled in artifice”; but shown to be “a quite classic expression.” Formerly than was often but not always used as a preposition, and than whom is probably a survival of such usage. “Than whom” is generally accepted as permissible—probably because the sentence where it occurs can not be mended without reconstruction, and it has abundant literary authority.
that: In construing this word, it must be recollected that it is not only a conjunction but also a pronoun, both demonstrative and relative. The peculiarity of the word is such that it can be used more times in succession than any other word in the English language. Exception having been taken to a certain “that” found in a school-boy’s exercise, it was shown that that that that that boy used was right. Dean Alford constructed a sentence on these lines which contained no fewer than nine thats in succession.