1609. Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, iv. 2. By these ten bones, sir, if these eyes and ears Can hear and see. Ibid, (c. 1613), Woman's Prize, i. 3. I'll devil em, by these ten bones, I will.
1621. Jonson, Masque of Gipsies, vi. 84. I swear by these ten You shall have it again.
1648. Herrick, Hesperides [Hazlitt, i. 209]. Skurffe by his nine-bones swears, and well he may, All know a fellon eate the tenth away.
1814. Scott, Waverley, xxx. I'll set my ten commandments in the face of the first loon that lays a finger on him.
1830. Marryat, King's Own, xl. I'll write the ten commandments on your face.
1842. Longfellow, Sp. Student, iii. 3. In with you, and be busy with the ten commandments, under the sly.
1903. Pall Mall Gaz., 6 Ap. 2. 3. The mother attacked the unfortunate master, and began the time-honoured but painful ceremony of setting her ten commandments in his face, while her hopeful offspring got the school cane and belaboured his instructor.
Tench, subs. (old).—1. A prison;
a 'peni(tenti)ary.' At one time
applied to the Clerkenwell House
of Detention, now the Central
Depôt of the Parcels Post.
1859. Broad Arrow, ii. 32. Prisoners' barracks, sir—us calls it Tench [the Hobart Town Penitentiary].
1877. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. I fell at Isleworth for being found in a conservatory adjoining a parlour, and got remanded at the tench.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum: see Monosyllable.
Tender. Tender Parnel, subs.
phr. (old).—1. A mistress; also
Parnel, Pernel; see Tart.
Hence (2) 'a very nicely Educated
creature, apt to catch Cold
upon the least blast of wind'
(B. E.), 'As tender as Parnell,
who broke her finger in a posset
drink' (Grose). Also 'as tender
as a chicken,' and 'as
tender as a parson's leman.
(Ray.)
1362. Langland, Piers Plow., 2790. Dame Pernele a priestes fyle . . . she hadde Child in Chirie-tyme.
1546. Heywood, Proverbs, 45. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 505. The morals of the clergy are glanced at where a woman is said to be 'tender as a Parson's lemman.'
1560. Becon, Prayers [Works (Parker Soc.), 267]. Pretty Parnel [speaking of] a priest's whore.
d. 1575. Pilkington, Works, 56. But these tender pernels must have one gown for the day, another for the night.
Tenderfoot, subs. (American and
Colonial).—A new comer: as
adj. = raw, inexperienced.
1875. L. Swinburne [Scribner's Monthly, 11. 508]. Pilgrim and tenderfoot were formerly applied almost exclusively to newly-imported cattle, but by a natural transference they are usually used to designate all new-comers, tourists, and business men.
1885. Staveley-Hill, Home to Home. I put my naked foot on a cactus . . . and I realised in a substantial form the nickname that is given to the new-comer out West of tender-foot or pilgrim.
1885. Phillips-Wolley, Trottings of a Tenderfoot. How an American ever expects to digest his food is a problem to a tenderfoot as they call us new-comers.
1885. Roosevelt, Hunting Trips, 32. Hunters . . . who bedizen themselves in all the traditional finery of the craft, in the hope of getting a job at guiding some tenderfoot.
1886. D. Tel. 25 Jan. Before long the tenderfoot's too fleet pony brings him abreast of the flying cow.
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 86. The tenderfoot had announced his determination of relieving a few of the miners of what spare change they happened to have about them.
1901. Walker, In the Blood, 59. 'Well, you keep your eyes open for a Tenderfoot, an' that's a fact,' said Wallaby Dick.
