1890. Athenæum, 3229, 351. She is personally a throw-back to an angel.
Thrum, verb. (Grose).—1. 'To
play on any instrument stringed
with wire'; to strum. Hence
thrummer.
1550. Udal, Roister Doister, ii. 1. Anon to our gittern, thrumpledum, thrumpledum, thrum.
2. (venery). To possess a woman (Halliwell): see Strum and Ride.
1772. Bridges, Homer Burlesque, 22. Expect . . . to keep you safe to thrum my harlot: Not I, by Jove. Ibid., 95. Paris, says he, we know you can The wenches thrum.
Subs. (old).—In pl. = threepence; threps (q.v.): see Rhino (B. E. and Grose). Also thrumbuskins and thrummop.
Thread and thrum. See Thread.
Thrum-cap, subs. phr. (old).—Rough
headgear. [Properly a
rugged rocky headland swept by
the sea.]
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. Pant. Prog. Scourers of greasy thrum caps, stuffers, and bumbasters of pack saddles.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 10. Smite my thrum-cap, and noddle too.
Thug, subs. (American political).—1.
A nickname for a member of
the native American party; (2) a
cut-throat ruffian.
1883. Century Mag., June, 230. Affrays were still common; the Know-Nothing movement came on, and a few thugs terrorized the city with campaign broils, beating, stabbing, and shooting. Ibid. (249). During our civil war, the regiments which were composed of plug-uglies, thugs, and midnight rounders, with noses laid over to one side as evidence of their prowess in bar-room mills and paving-stone riots, were generally cringing cowards in battle.
Thumb, verb. (old).—1. To drain a
glass upon the thumb-nail: the
glass must be emptied so that
there remains only a drop that
will not run off the nail. See
Supernaculum.
2. (common).—(a) To paw, to mess about, to grope a woman; and (b) to possess one carnally: hence a well-thumbed girl = a foundered whore. Also thumble.
1606. Wily Beguiled [Hawkins, Eng. Drama, iii. 317. Well, I'll not stay with her: stay, quotha? To be yauld and jaul'd at, and tumbled and thumbled, and tost and turn'd as I am by an old hag.
Among colloquial phrases are: A thumb under the girdle = an indication of gravity or sadness; rule of thumb (q.v.), adding quot. infra; all his fingers are thumbs (of a clumsy person: also thumbless); to bite the thumb (see Bite); under one's thumb = under complete control, subservient; finger and thumb = inseparable, with tied navels. (It. 'Hanno legato il bellico insieme.') Further, a well-thumbed book = a rough-handled book; one 'thumbed' out of respectability; thumb-marked = bearing unmistakable traces of an individual artist, reader, performer, etc. Also proverbial (and other) sayings: 'When you come to this place of ease, Place your elbows on your knees, Behind your ears stick both your thumbs, Give a heave, and out it comes.' 'If you bite your thumb there's hell to pay.' (See Bite).
1534. Udal, Roister Doister, i. 3. Ah, eche finger is a thombe to-day me thinke.
