1710. Swift, Polite Conv., i. No, Miss, I'll send it you to-morrow. Well, well, to-morrow's a new day, but I suppose you mean to-morrow come never.
1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 34. Ra. He shall have it in a very little Time. Sy. When? To-morrow come never.
1797. Colman, Man and Wife, iii. Sally. You married. . .! When will that be? Marc. Very soon, my dear! To-day or to-morrow perhaps. Sally. To-morrow come never, I believe.
Tom-pat, subs. phr. (Cant).—1.
A shoe: in Gypsy = a foot.
2. (Old Cant).—A parson; a patrico (q.v.); rum tom-pat = a clerk in holy orders: patrico = (properly) a sham or hedge-priest.
Tom Pepper, subs. phr. (nautical).—A
liar (Clark Russell).
Tompion, subs. (old).—A watch.
[Thomas Tompion, a celebrated
watchmaker, died in 1669.]
1727. Pope, Treatise on the Bathos. Lac'd in her cosins new appear'd the bride, A bubble-bow and tompion at her side.
Tom-piper, subs. phr. (old).—A
piper: cf. nursery rhyme, 'Tom,
Tom, the piper's son.'
1616. W. Browne, Brit. Pastorals, ii. 2. So have I seene Tom-Piper stand upon our village greene.
Tom-poker, subs. phr. (nursery).—A
bugbear.
Tom-rig. See Tomboy.
Tom Tell-truth (or Tom
Truth), subs. phr. (old).—1.
See Tell-truth, adding quot.
infra. Also (2) = a honest man,
a trusty fellow (Ray); and (3) 'a
true guesser' (Halliwell).
1564. Udal, Erasmus Apoph., 202 This Demochares was . . . called . . . in their language, Parrhesiastes (as ye would say in English), Thom trouth or plain Sarisbuirie.
Tom Thumb, (old).—A dwarf; a
thumbling (Fr. petit poucet); a
hop-o'-my-thumb (q.v.).—B. E.
and Grose.
1592. Nashe, Piers Pennilesse. [For this and innumerable contemporary references see Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet., ii. 167.]
1621. Johnson, Tom Thumb, Introd. Nor shall my story be made of Tom of Bethlem, Tom Lincoln, or Tom a Lin, the devil's bastard . . . but of an older Tom, a Tom of more antiquity . . . I mean little Tom of Wales, no bigger than a miller's thumb, and therefore, for his small stature, surnamed Tom Thumb.
1630. Life and Death of Tom Thumb [Roberts Ballads, 82]. In Arthur's court Tom Thumb did live.
d. 1704. Browne, Works, ii. 23. Thou pigmy in sin, thou Tom Thumb in iniquity.
1733. Fielding, Tom Thumb the Great [Title].
1734. Hearne, Reliquiæ, iii. 138. What makes me think Tom Thumb is founded on history is the method of those times of turning true history into little pretty stories.
Tom Tiddler's Ground, subs.
phr. (common).—Waste ground;
unsettled acreage; a No-man's
Land: properly a neutral or
barren stretch of country between
two kingdoms or provinces: e.g.
the tract between Spain and the
lines of Gibraltar.
Tom-tiler, subs. phr. (old).—A
henpecked husband.
Tom Tit, subs. phr. (common).—A
dwarf; an insignificant fellow:
see Hop-o'-my-thumb.
Tom Titivil. See Titivil.
Tom-toe, subs. phr. (provincial).—The
great toe.
