1857. Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, i. 5. You see I'm doing the handsome thing by you, because my father knows yours.
Thingumbob, subs. (common).—1.
Used for the proper name of a
person or thing, (a) when forgotten;
or (b) when it is not
desired to specifically name.
Variants are numerous: e.g.,
thingumajig, thingum, thingummy,
thingamy, thingumbee,
thing-a-merry, thingummite,
thingomightum, etc. (Grose
and Bee). See Jiggumbob and
What's-its-name.
1751. Smollett, Pickle, ii. In a laced doublet and thingumbobs at the wrists.
1831. Lytton, Eug. Aram, i. ii. You will then see in the middle of a broad plain a lonely grey house, with a thingumbob at the top: a 'servatory they call it.
1861. Thackeray, Philip, 1. 101. What a bloated aristocrat thingamy has become since he got his place.
1883. Century Mag., xxxvii. 913. He got ther critter propped up an' ther thingermajig stropped on ter 'im.
1890. James, Prin. of Psychology, 1. 463. A polyp would be a conceptual thinker if a feeling of 'Hollo! thingumbob again!' ever flitted through its mind.
2. (venery).—Euphemistic for (a) the penis: see Prick; and (b) the female pudendum: see Monosyllable. Also (3) in pl. = the testes: see Cods.
Thin-guts, subs. phr. (old).—A
starveling.
1631. Massinger, Believe as You List, iii. 2. Thou thin-gut!
Think. See Penny; Small
Beer.
Thin-'un, subs. phr. (common).—A
half sovereign; 10s.; cf.
thick-'un.
Thirding, subs. (University).—A
custom practised at the Universities,
where two-thirds of the
original price is allowed by the
upholsterers to the students for
household goods returned to
them within the year (Gradus
ad Cantab, 1803).
Thirteen (or Thirteener), subs.
(old).—An Irish shilling = 13d.:
also thirteen.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'Coronation.' For the Earl of Surrey, all in his hurry, Throwing the thirteens, hit him in his eye.
1847. Thackeray, George de Barnwell (Punch, Ap. 3 to 17]. By Wood's thirteeners, and the devil go wid 'em.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., 1. 484. It was a shillin' he gave me . . . I niver heard it called a thirteener before, but mother has.
1886. Notes and Queries, 7 S. i. 77. Colloquially it [the Irish shilling current prior to 1825-6] continued to be called a thirteen . . . so late as 1835 to my knowledge.
Thirteen Clean Shirts, subs.
phr. (prison).—Three months'
imprisonment.
Thirteen-pence Halfpenny,
subs. phr. (old).—Hangman's
wages (Grose).
1602. Dekker, Honest Whore, ii. Works (1873), ii. 171]. Why should I eate hempe-seed at the hangman's thirteen-pence-halfe-penny ordinary?
1608. Day, Humour out of Breath, F 3. If I shold, he could not hang me for't; 'tis not worth thirteen pence half-*penny.
1633. Rowley, Match at Midnight [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), vii. 357]. 'Sfoot, what a witty rogue was this to leave this fair thirteen pence halfpenny, and this old halter, intimating aptly, Had the hangman met us there, by these presages, Here had been his work, and here his wages.
1659. Hangman's last Will [Notes and Queries, 2 S xi. 316]. For half thirteen pence halfpenny wages I would have cleared out all the town cages.
