thill-horse, the shaft-horse; ‘The Thill-horse in Charles’s Wain’, Derham (NED.). In common use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Thill, sb.1 2 4). See [fill].
thirdborough, the petty constable of a township or manor. L. L. L. i. 1. 185; cp. Taming Shrew, Induct, i. 12; B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 1 (Hugh). Probably a corruption of an earlier frithborh; OE. friðborh, peace-surety, frankpledge. See NED.
thirdendale: phr. thirdendale gallant, the third part of a gallant, Dekker, If this be not a good Play (Scumbroath); Works, iii. 329. See [halfendeale].
this, thus. Skelton, Death of Edw. IV, 38; Philip Sparowe, 366; and often.
tho, then. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 18; ii. 8. 47. ME. tho, then (Chaucer). see M. and S.; OE. þā.
thole, the dome of a temple, within which votive offerings were suspended; ‘Let Altars smoake and Tholes expect our spoiles’, Fisher, True Trojans, iii. 2 (Nennius). Gk. θόλος, a round building with a cupola; at Athens, the Rotunda in which the Prytanes, the committee of 50, dined at the public cost.
thorow-lights, lights or windows on both sides of a room. Bacon, Essay 45, § 3. From thorow = through.
thrall, v., to enthral, enslave. Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 29; vi. 11. 44.
threap, to rebuke; to maintain obstinately. Greene, James IV, Induction (Bohan); threpped, pp., Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 354. In gen. prov. use in both senses in Scotland, Ireland, and in England, north country and Midlands. See EDD. (s.v. Threap, 5); ME. threpe, to assert to be (Chaucer). OE. þrēapian, to rebuke, argue.
threave, a large number, a multitude, a swarm of insects; ‘Threaves of busy flies’, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, ii. 401 (in later ed. ‘swarms of flies’); a bundle or handful tied up like a small sheaf, Chapman, Gent. Usher, ii. 1 (Bassiolo). The word is used in many parts of Scotland and England in the sense of a considerable number or quantity, see EDD. (s.v. Thrave, sb. 3). Icel. þrefi, a number of sheaves.