1864. Glasgow Daily Mail, 9 May. All kinds of cheats, and thimble-riggers, and prigs.
1868. Whyte-Melville, White Rose, ii. iv. A merry blue-eyed boy, fresh from Eton, who could do thimble-rig, prick the garter, bones with his face blacked, and various other accomplishments.
1877. Greenwood, Dick Temple. The poor trumpery beggars—converted clowns, and dog-stealers, and tramps, and thimble-riggers—a poor out-at-elbows crew.
1883. J. Burroughs [Century Mag., xxvii. 926]. The explanation of these experts is usually only clever thimble-rigging.
1887. D. Teleg., 15 Mar. Thimble-riggers abounded, and their tables were surrounded by 'bonnets.'
Thin, adj. (colloquial).—One or
two modern usages of thin verge
on the colloquial: e.g., a thin
(= poor) excuse; a thin (= gutless)
play; a thin (= trashy)
novel; too thin (or T. T.) =
frivolous, inadequate, insufficient
to deceive, etc. Also (proverbial),
'As thin as a lath'; 'As
thin as the last run of shad.'
1601. Shakspeare, Henry VIII., v. 3. 125. You were ever good at sudden commendations . . . now . . . they are too thin and bare to hide offences.
1734. Pope, Satires, 93. Throned in the centre of his thin designs.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, xxvi. This pretext was too thin to impose upon her lover.
1763. Foote, Mayor of Garratt, i. Sneak. You see . . . I am almost as thin as a lath. Bruin. An absolute skeleton.
1889. Mod. Soc. 13 July, 852. 'Christopher's Honeymoon,' by M. Malcolm Watson, produced at the Strand, on Wednesday, is not wholly bad, but it is too thin.
Thin Red Line (The), subs. phr.
(military).—The Princess Louise's
(Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders):
of the 2nd battalion,
late The 93rd Foot.
1901. Farmer, Regimental Records of the British Army, 207. Who amongst us does not remember, or who has not heard of that 'thin red line' drawn up by Colin Campbell to resist the onslaught of the Russian horse at Balaclava? how the 93rd stood their ground, successfully stemming, and finally repulsing that memorable charge? how it alone of all regiments of foot enjoys the proud distinction of 'Balaclava' on its colours?
Thing, subs. (old colloquial).—1.
In familiar usage (admiration,
pity, scorn, or endearment) = a
living creature, male or female:
e.g., sweet thing (an old
endearment); a poor thing (a
pitiful object); 'you thing!';
a thing of a man (contemptuously:
also a thing to thank
God on (Shakspeare); a mere
thing in one's hands = a puppet,
a nonentity; all that sort of
thing = hardly worth notice, no
class (q.v.), etc., etc.
c. 1440. Eglamour [Camden Soc.], 616. Seyde Organata that swete thynge, Y schalle geve the a gode golde rynge, Wyth a fulle ryche stone.
. . . MS. Cantab., Ff. ii. 38. f. 176. Gye starte to that maydyn [M.E.: ezh]ynge, And seyde, Make no dole, my swete thynge.
1363. Langland, Piers Plowman [E. E. T. S], 262. [A beggar is called] 'a poure thing.'
d. 1536. Tyndale, Works, ii. 120. Tyndale speaks of Christ as] 'a thing soft and gentle.'
1542. Udal, Erasmus, 270. Augustus beyng yet a young thing vnder mannes state.
1565. Ascham, Schoolmaster (1711), i. 42. If he be bashful, and will soon blush, they call him a babish and ill brought up thing.
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., iii. 3. 129. For womanhood Maid Marian may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee; go, you thing, go.
1633. Ford, Broken Heart, ii. 3. Thing of talk, begone! Begone without reply.
1707. Ward, Hud. Rediv., ii. v. 24. You little Thingum of a thing.
