Ten-forty, subs. phr. (American).—A five per cent. bond issued in 1864 by the U.S. Government, redeemable at any time after ten years and payable in forty years (Century).
Ten-in-the-hundred, subs. phr.
(old).—A usurer; a sixty-per-cent.
(q.v.). [Nares: from
their commonly exacting such
interest for their money, before
the legal limitation to five]
(Grose).
1594. Death of Usury, sig. B 4. He that puts forth money dare not exceede the rate of 10 in the 100, but he that uttereth ware doth make his rate to his owne contentment.
d. 16[?]. [Brathwaite [?], Epitaph on John-a-Combe. Ten in the hundred lies here in-grav'd, 'Tis a hundred to ten that his soul is not sav'd.
1625. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1. Although your grace be fallen off two in the hundred, In vulgar estimation; yet am I Your grace's servant still. [In 1624 the legal rate was reduced from ten to eight per cent.]
1648. Herrick, Hesperides [Hazlitt, ii. 37]. Snare ten i' th' hundred calls his wife, and why? She brings in much by carnal usury.
Tenner, subs. (common).—1. A
ten pound note; £10: cf.
Fiver.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, xix. 'No money?' 'Not much: perhaps a tenner.'
1871. Braddon, Rupert Godwin, i. 221. And you don't like me well enough to borrow a few tenners just to carry on the war with?
2. (thieves').—Ten years' imprisonment.
Ten pence. Only tenpence in
the shilling, phr. (common).—A
description of weak intellect.
Also tenpenny = in contempt.
1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, iv. 2. If all the great Turk's concubines were but like thee, the tenpenny infidel should never need keep so many geldings to neigh over 'em.
Tent, subs. (old).—The penis: see
Prick.
Tenterbelly, subs. (old).—A
glutton; one who distends his
belly by gross feeding.
1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., III. ii. v. 1. Not with sweet wine, mutton and pottage, as many of those Tenterbellies do.
Tenterhooks. On tenterhooks
(or tenters), adv. phr.
(old).—In suspense; anxious;
on the rack (or stretch).
1607. Heywood, Fair Maid [Pearson, Works, ii. 25]. How, upon the tenters? indeed, if the whole peece were so stretcht, and very well beaten with a yard of reformation, no doubt it would grow to a goodly breadth.
d. 1774. Goldsmith, Sequel to Poetical Scale . . . . It was gallantry that suited her own maiden loftiness, ever stretched upon the tenters of punctillio.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 102. I was too much on the tenterhooks about the result to mind his orders. Ibid., 236. One must sit on the tenterhooks of self-denial.
1868. Whyte-Melville, White Rose, ii. xxviii. I know Dolly's on tenter-hooks now.
Tentoes. See Bayard.
Tenuc, subs. (back-slang).—The
female pudendum: see Monosyllable.
Tercel-gentle, subs. phr. (old
colloquial).—'A Knight or
Gentleman of a good estate;
also any rich Man' (B. E.). Also
Tassel-gentle [Tercel (Cotgrave
and Randle Holmes) =
the male of the peregrine falcon.]
Hence falcon 'gainst tercel
(or as tercel) = 'One's as good
as t'other.'
