6. (American).—Threepence; 3d.: cf. Thrip, Threp, etc.
[?]. Hills, Vulg. Arith. [Century]. The same vingten is woorth our trip, or Eng. 3d., or woorth halfe a Spanish royall.
Tripe, subs. (once literary: now
vulgar).—In pl. = the guts:
whence the belly. Also in contempt
both of persons and things;
tripe-visaged = flabby, baggy,
expressionless; Mr. Double-Tripe
= a fat man: also tripes
and trullibubs (Grose);
tripe-cheek = a fat blowsy
face.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., v. 4. 9. Thou . . . tripe-visaged rascal.
1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv. 3. Alice. Thou sow of Smithfield, thou! Urs. Thou tripe of Turnbull.
c. 1630. Howell, Letters, ii. The Turk, when he hath his Tripe full of Pelaw, or of Mutton and Rice, will go . . . either to the next Well or River to drink Water.
1834. Hood, Tylney Hall, xxxv. I'm as marciful as any on 'em—and I'll stick my knife in his tripes as says otherwise.
Triplet, subs. (colloquial).—One
of three at a birth; in pl. = three
children at a birth.
1874. Flint, Physiology, 941. We have in mind at this moment a case of three females, triplets, all of whom lived past middle age.
Triple-tree, subs. phr. (Old Cant).—The
gallows: see Nubbing-cheat,
Ladder, and Tree.
d. 1635. Randolph [?], Hey For Honesty, iv. 1. This is a rascal deserves to ride up Holborn, And take a pilgrimage to the triple tree, To dance in hemp Derrick's coranto.
1641. Broome, Jovial Crew, i. What they may do hereafter under a, triple tree is much expected,
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, iv. xvi. That very hour from an exalted triple tree two of the honestest gentlemen in Catchpoleland had been made to cut a caper on nothing.
d. 1704. Brown, Works, iii. 62. A wry mouth on the triple tree puts an end to all discourse about us.
1855. Leland, Meister Karl. For whether I sink in the foaming flood, Or swing on the triple-tree, Or die in my bed as a Christian should, Is all the same to me!
Triple X's (The), subs. phr.
(military).—The 30th Foot, now
the 1st battalion East Lancashire
Regiment. Also Treble X's.
Tripoly. To come from Tripoly,
verb. phr. (old).—To
vault or tumble; to perform with
spirit (Halliwell).
Tripos, subs. (Cambridge Univ.).—Orig.
the stool on which the
champion of the University sat at
the disputations held with the
'Father' in the Philosophy School
on Ash Wednesday, at the admission
of Bachelors of Arts to their
degree; then it was transferred
to the Bachelor himself; still
later to the humorous, or, in some
cases, scurrilous, speech with
which 'Mr. Tripos' opened the
proceedings, and to the verses of
the Bachelors at the Acts, each
sheet of verses being called a
Tripos or Tripos-paper. The
honours-lists were printed (about
1747-8) on the backs of these
verses, and so tripos came to
mean an honour-list, and, last of
all, the examination itself. Until
the year 1824 there was only one
tripos, the Mathematical; and up
to 1850 only those who had obtained
honours in mathematics
were admitted to the Classical
examination. The degree was
not given for that examination
