c. 1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Taudry, garish, gawdy, with Lace or mismatched and flaring Colours: A Term borrow'd from those times when they Trickt and Bedeckt the Shrines and Altars of the Saints, as being at vye with each other upon that occasion. The Votaries of St Audrey (an Isle of Ely Saint) exceeding all the rest in the Dress and Equipage of her Altar, it grew into a Nay-word, upon anything very gawdy, that it was all Taudry, as much as to say all St Audrey.
1716. Montague, Letters, 22 Aug. Dirty people of quality tawdered out.
1736. Pulteney, To Swift, 21 Dec. A rabble of people, seeing her very oddly and tawdrily dressed, took her for a foreigner.
1759-67. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, v. 59. There is nothing in this world I abominate worse than to be interrupted in a story, and I was that moment telling Eugenius a most tawdry one.
1762. Churchill, Prophecy of Famine. All that artificial tawdry glare, Which Virtue scorns, and none but strumpets wear.
1822. Nares, Glossary, s.v. Tawdry. A vulgar corruption of saint Audrey, or Auldrey, meaning saint Ethelreda, [implying] that things so called had been bought at the fair of saint Audrey, where gay toys of all sorts were sold. This fair was held in the Isle of Ely . . . on the . . . 17th of October. . . . An old historian makes saint Audrey die of a swelling in her throat, which she considered as a particular judgment, for having been in her youth much addicted to wearing fine necklaces. Nich. Harpsfield (1622), Hist. Eccl. Anglicana.
Tawny-coat, subs. phr. (old).—An
ecclesiastical officer. [From
the livery.]
. . . [Dodsley, Old Plays [Reed], vi. 99]. Husband, lay hold on yonder tawny coat.
c. 1577. Harrington, Catal. Bishop (Park), ii. 22. It happened one day, bishop Elmer [? Aylmer] of London, meeting this bishop [Whitgift, then bishop of Worcester] with such an orderly troope of tawny coats, demaunded of him, 'How he could keepe so many men?' he answeared, 'It was by reason he kept so few women.'
1592. Shakspeare, 1 Hen. VI., iii. 1. 174. Down with the tawny-coats!
Tawnymoor, subs. (old).—A
mulatto.
1717. Centlivre, Bold Stroke for a Wife, i. 1. There's a black, a tawnymoor, and a Frenchman.
Tax-collector, subs. phr. (old).—A
highwayman.
T-beard, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—A
fashion in trimming the
beard; a beard cut T-wise.
1618. Fletcher, Queen of Corinth, iv. 1. Your t-beard is in fashion.
Tea, subs. (old).—Urine: see
Cold-tea, Long-tea, and
Tea-voider.
1712. Gay, Trivia, ii. 297. Who 'gainst the sentry's box discharge their tea.
Verb. (colloquial).—1. To take tea: cf. 'dine,' 'lunch,' 'sup,' etc. (all recognised).
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Leg., iii. 255. Unless . . . you'd tea with your wife.
1839. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ix. Father don't tea with us.
2. (common).—To engage with, encounter, go in against.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, 'The Lost Legion.' And some share our tucker with tigers, And some with the gentle Masai (Dear boys!), Take tea with the giddy Masai.
Teach. See Grandmother and
Suck.
To teach iron to swim, verb. phr. (common).—To achieve the impossible.
Teach-guy, subs. phr. (back slang).—Eight
shillings.
Teacup. Storm (or tempest) in
a teacup (or teapot), subs. phr.
(common).—Much ado about
nothing: cf. 'a tide and flood
though it be but in a basin of
water' (Bentley, Phalaris,
1699, 399).
