Tavistock (or Tawstock) Grace, subs. phr. (Halliwell).—'Finis.'
Taw, subs. (old).—See quots.
Tawlings (or taw) = the line
from which the marble is shot:
hence (American), to come to
taw = to come to scratch (q.v.);
to be called to account; to be
on one's taw = 'a species of
threat' (Grose).
1764. Churchill, Candidate. To whip a top, to knuckle down at taw.
1784. Cowper, Tirocinium, i. 307. To kneel and draw The chalky ring, and knuckle down at taw.
1801. Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, 491. Taw, wherein a number of boys put each of them one or two marbles in a ring and shoot at them alternately with other marbles, and he who obtains most of them by beating them out of the ring is the conqueror.
1819. Vaux, Memoirs, ii. 193. One upon your taw, a person who takes offence at the conduct of another, or conceives himself injured by the latter, will say, never mind, I'll be one upon your taw; or, I'll be a marble on your taw; meaning I'll be even with you some time.
1837. Dickens, Pickwick, xxxiv. He [inquired] whether he had won any alley tors or commoneys lately.
1842. Tennyson, Will Waterproof. A . . . pottle-bodied boy That knuckled at the taw.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, i. 3. His small private box was full of peg-tops, white marbles (called 'alley taws' in the Vale).
1883. Century Mag., xxxvi. 78. Their cries of 'rounses,' 'taw,' 'dubs,' . . . might be heard there before and after school hours.
Verb. (old).—1. To beat; to scourge (Grose); and (2) to torment. [A.S. tawian = to beat.] Also taws (or tawse) = a leather strap, slit or fringed at one end, used by schoolmasters (Scots).
1549. Chaloner, Moriæ Enc., G 2. They are not tawed, nor pluckt asunder.
1607. Marston, What You Will, E 2. For Ile make greatness quake, Ile tawe the hide Of thick-skin'd Hugenes.
1609. Ammianus Marcellinus [Nares]. When he had been well tawed with rods, and compelled to confesse.
1613. Fletcher, Captain. He's to be made more tractable . . . if they taw him as they do whit-leather.
1656. Men Miracles, 45. They taw'd it faith, their gunnes would hit, As sure as they had studied it.
Tawdry, adj. (old colloquial: now
recognised in its debased sense).—1.
Orig. fine, elegant, trim;
whence (2) cheaply showy, ignorantly
fine; see quots. 1696 and
1822. Also derivatives such as
tawdered, tawdrily, tawdriness,
etc. Tawdry-lace (or
tawdry) = a rustic necklace or
girdle; tawdrums = fal-lals.
Hence, by implication = bawdy
(see quot. 1759-62): see Tol-*tawdry.
1530. Palsgrave, Lang. Francoyse. Seynt Audries lace ['whence (Oliphant) came tawdry in later times'].
1548. Patten [Arber, Garner, iii. 71]. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 519. We read of Tauthrie laces in a list of superstitious trumpery; these were sold at St Audrey's fair at Ely.]
1579. Spenser, Shepheard's Calendar, Ap., 133. Gird your waste, For more fineness, with a tawdrie lace.
1604. Shakspeare, Winter's Tale, iv. 3. Come, you promised me a tawdry lace, and a pair of sweet gloves.
1605. Marston, Dutch Courtezan, v. No matter for lace and tawdrums.
1610. Fletcher, Faithful Shepherd, iv. 1. The primrose chaplet, tawdry lace, and ring.
1612. Drayton, Polyolb., ii. 686. Of which the Naiads and the blue Nereids make Them taudries for their necks. Ibid., iv. 727. They curl their ivory fronts; and not the smallest beck But with white pebbles makes her taudries for her neck.
1670. Moral State of England, 161. A kind of tawdriness in their habits.
