1900. Athenaum, 16 June, 743. The chapel rather loses by its stunted head, especially as a fine tapering spire (disrespectfully known as 'The Tolly') appears at the back of the Close.
Toloben (Tollibon or Tullibon),
subs. (Cant).—The tongue:
hence toloben-rig = fortune
telling.
Tolsery, subs. (provincial).—A
penny. [Halliwell: 'A cant
term.'] See Rhino.
Tom, subs. (colloquial).—1. A
generic slight: e.g. Tomboy,
Tom-double, Tom-farthing,
Tom-fool, Tom-noddy (all of
which see): in quot. a contemptuous
reference to the use of bells in
the ceremonial of the mass.
1648-55. Fuller, Church Hist., v. iv. 28. Item, That the singing or saying of masse, mattens, or evensong is but a a roreing, howling, whisteling, mumming, tomring, and jugling.
2. (old).—A deep-toned bell: e.g. Great (or Big) Tom of Oxford, Lincoln, Exeter: probably onomatopœia. Whence after Tom = after 9. p.m.: at that hour Big Tom of Christchurch, Oxford, strikes one for every student in residence (101); when it ceases the gates are closed and late comers are fined on a sliding scale up to midnight, after which delinquents are gated (q.v.).
1630. White [Rimbault, Rounds, Catches, etc. 30]. Great Tom is cast; And Christ Church bells ring . . . And Tom comes last.
1635. Tom a Lincolne, ii. [Thoms, Early Eng. Prose Romances, ii. 246]. Hee sent . . . a thousand pounds . . . to be bestowed upon a great bell to be rung at his funerall, which bell he causeth to be called Tom a Lincolne after his owne name, where to this day it remaineth in the same citie.
1648. Corbet, On. Great Tom of Christchurch. And know, when Tom rings out his knells, The best of you will be but dinner-bells.
1807. Southey, Don Espriella's Letters. We ascended one of the other towers afterwards to see Great Tom, the largest bell in England.
1880. Sat. Rev., l. 670. No one knows why Tom should have been twice selected for great bells . . . Indeed Tom of Oxford is said to have been christened Mary, and how the metamorphosis of names and sexes was effected is a mystery.
1882. Smyth Palmer, Folk Etymology, 397. Tom . . . seems . . . imitative of the booming resonance of its toll . . . tom-tom, a drum . . . so 'Ding-dong, bell (Tempest, i. 2. 403), and Dr Cooke's round, 'Bim, Bome, bell.'
1900. Farmer, Public School Word Book, s.v. Tom . . . The great bell of Christ Church formerly belonged to Oseney Abbey, and weighs about 17,000 lbs.
3. (provincial).—A close-stool (Halliwell).
Tomahawk, verb. (Australian).—To
bungle the shears in fleecing
sheep.
1859. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, 147. Shearers were very scarce, and the poor sheep got fearfully tomahawked by the new hands.
1872. Eden, My Wife and I in Queensland, 96. Some men never get the better of this habit, but tomahawk as badly after years of practice as when they first began.
1896. Paterson, Man from Snowy River, 162. The 'ringer' that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn before, And the novice who toiling bravely Had tommyhawked half a score.
To bury (or dig up) the
tomahawk, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To
make peace (or go to
war); to settle a difference (or
to dispute): it was the custom of
the North American Indians to
bury the tomahawk during
time of peace: see Hatchet.
