He touched the hollow of his thigh, and it was out of joint. Gen. xxxii. 25. The thigh includes all between the buttocks and the knee. The thigh bone is the longest of all the bones in the body; its fibres are close and hard; it has a cavity in its middle; it is a little convex and round on its foreside, but a little hollow, with a long

and small ridge on its backside.

Quincy. The flesh dissolved, and left the thigh-bone bare. Wiseman.

THILK, pronoun. Saxon bilc. That same. Obsolete.

I love thilk lass: alas, why do I love ?
She deigns not my good will, but doth reprove,
And of my rural musick holdeth scorn.

Spenser's Pastorals.

THILL, n. s. THILL'ER. the arms of wood between which the last horse is placed: thiller, the last horse.

Sax. dille, a piece of timber cut. The shafts of a waggon;

Whose bridle and saddle, whitlether and nall, With collars and harneiss for thiller and all.

Tusser. What a beard hast thou got! thou hast got more hair on thy chin, than Dobbin my thill horse has Shakspeare.

on his tail.

More easily a waggon may be drawn in rough ways, if the fore wheels were as high as the hinder wheels, and if the thills were fixed under the axis. Mortimer.

THIM'BLE, n.s. Supposed by Minshieu to be corrupted from thumb bell. The Danish finger bel is of the same signification. A metal cover by which the fingers are secured from the needle in sewing.

Your ladies and pale visaged maids, Like Amazons, come tripping after drums; Their thimbles into armed gantlets change, Their needles to lances. Shakspeare. King John.

Examine Venus and the Moon, Who stole a thimble or a spoon. Hudibras. Veins that run perpendicular to the horizon have valves sticking to their sides like so many thimbles; which, when the blood presses back, stop its passage, but are compressed by the forward motion of Cheyne.

the blood.

THIMBLE MAKING. This art is said to have been brought from Holland, in 1695, by Mr. John Lofting, a Dutchman, who set up a workshop at Islington, and practised it with success. The most common and useful thimbles are made of shruff, or old hammered brass, the best being too dear and the ordinary too brittle. This the manufacturers melt and cast in a sort of sand, with which and red ochre are made mould and cores, and in them they usually cast six gross at a cast, and about six or seven of these casts in a day. They are cast in double rows, and, when cold, taken out and cut off with greasy shears. Then boys take out the cores from the inside with a pointed piece of iron, which cores were made by them, every core having a nail with a broad head in it, which head keeps it from the mould, and makes the hollow to cast it in. This done, they are put into a barrel as they do shot, and turned round with a horse, till they rub the sand one from another. Thus far the foundry, in which are employed six persons: first, the founder and two men make the moulds ready. Secondly, two boys make cores, for each thimbleo ne. Thirdly,

one that blow the bellows. From hence they are carried to the mill to be turned. First, the inside, which works with an instrument to the bottom, while its hold lasts, and flies back when let loose. Secondly, the outside, which, with a pretty smooth at one stroke; and afterwards with coarser engine, called a rough turning, is made a finer engine both the side and bottom are at one stroke made very smooth. Then some sawdust or filings of horn combs are put half way into each thimble, and upon it an iron punch, and then, with one blow against a studded steed, the hollow of the bottom is made. After this, with an engine, the sides have the hollow made, and in this engine is their chief secret, and they This done, they are again polished on the inside. can work off with it thirty or forty gross in a day. Then the rim, whether a single or double one, is turned at one stroke, and all these turnings are performed with five men and three boys. After this, they are again turned in the barrel with saw-dust or bran, to scour them very bright, and so they are complete thimbles. Thus finished, they are sorted, and put six together one in another; and six of these half dozens are wrapped up in a blue paper; and four of these papers, making a gross, are wrapped up in another paper, and tied with a packthread, which makes them almost a square, and are sold by the first maker by the gross.

THIME, n. s. Fr. thym; Latin thymus. A fragrant herb from which the bees are supposed to draw honey. This should be written thyme. Fair marigolds, and bees' alluring thyme.

THIN, adj., adv., & THIN'LY, adv. [v.. THIN'NESS, n. s.

Spenser.

Sax. inn; Isl. thunnur; Belgic dunn; Swedish tunn. Small; rare;

lean; attenuated; not thick or dense; not coarse used as an adverb for not thickly: to make rare or thin; attenuate: the adverb and noun substantive correspond.

Seven thin ears, blasted with the east wind sprung up. Gen. xli. 6. Beat gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires. Exodus.

The hope of the ungodly is like thin froth, that is blown away with the wind. Wisdom, v. 14.

In the day, when the air is more thin, the sound pierceth better; but when the air is more thick, as in the night, the sound spendeth and spreadeth

abroad less.

Bacon.

A slim thin-gutted fox made a hard shift to wriggle his body into a hen-roost; and, when he had stuffed his guts well, the hole was too little to get out again. L'Estrange.

A country gentlewoman, if it be like to rain, goes not abroad thin clad. Locke. Those pleasures that spring from honour, the mind can nauseate, and quickly feel the thinness of a popular breath. South.

In country villages pope Leo the seventh indulged a practice, through the thinness of the inhabitants, which opened a way for pluralities.

Ayliffe's Parergon. Already Cæsar Has ravaged more than half the globe; and sees Mankind grown thin by his destructive sword.

Addison.

'Tis Cæsar's sword has made Rome's senate little,

And thinned its ranks.

Id. Cato.

Ferrara is very large, but extremely thin of people,

Addison.

Transparent substances, as glass, water, air, &c., when made very thin by being blown into bubbles, or otherwise formed into plates, do exhibit various colours, according to their various thinness, although at a greater thickness they appear very clear and colourless. Newton's Opticks.

The vapours, by the solar heat
Thinned and exhaled, rise to their airy seat.

Blackmore. Such depend upon a strong projectile motion of the blood, and too great thinness and delicacy of the vessels. Arbuthnot.

The serum of the blood is neither acid nor alkaline; oil of vitriol thickens, and oil of tartar thins it a little. Id.

To warm new milk, pour any alkali; the liquor will remain at rest, though it appear somewhat

thinner.

Id. Sick with the love of fame, what throngs pour in, Unpeople court, and leave the senate thin! Young. THING, n. s. Saxon ding; Belgic ding. Whatever is; any kind of matter; an affair: used in contempt; and particularly of persons: a general word."

The remnant of the meat-offering is a thing most holy. Lev. ii. 3.

The great master he found busy in packing up his things against his departure.

Knolles's History of the Turks. Do not you chide! I have a thing for you. -You have a thing for me! It is a common thing

I have a thing in prose, begun about twenty-eight years ago, and almost finished: it will make a four shilling volume.

THINK, v. n. & v. a. THINK'ER, N. S. THINK'ING.

Swift. Pret. thought. Sax. dencean; Goth. thankgan; Belgic dencken. To have ideas; to reason; cogitate; to perform any mental operation; judge; conclude; intend; imagine; consider; doubt: as a verb active, to believe; imagine; esteem: a thinker is one who thinks: thinking, cogitation; imagination; judgment.

Let them marry to whom they think best; only to their father's tribe shall they marry.

Numb. xxxvi. 6. Me thinketh that the running of the foremost is like that of Ahimaaz. 2 Samuel, xviii. 27. Think upon me, my God, for good, according to

all that I have done.
He thought scorn to lay hands

Charity thinketh no evil.

Nehemiah, v. 19. on Mordecai alone. Esther, iii.

1 Cor. xiii. 5.

You pine, you languish, love to be alone, Think much, speak little, and in speaking sigh.

Dryden.

No body is made any thing by hearing of rules, or laying them up in his memory; practice must settle the habit: you may as well hope to make a good musician by a lecture on the art of musick, as a coherent thinker, or strict reasoner by a set of rules. Locke.

Thinking, in the propriety of the English tongue, signifies that sort of operation of the mind about its ideas, wherein the mind is active, where it, with some degree of voluntary attention, considers any thing.

Id.

The opinions of others, whom we know and think well of, are no ground of assent.

Id.

Those who love to live in gardens, have never thought of contriving a winter garden. Spectator.

We may not be startled at the breaking of the exterior earth; for the face of nature hath provoked men to think of and observe such a thing.

Burnet's Theory of the Earth. I was a man, to my thinking, very likely to get a rich widow. Addison.

His experience of a good prince must give great satisfaction to every thinking man. Id. Freeholder. Any one may think with himself, how then can any thing live in Mercury and Saturn?

Bentley's Sermons.

Still the work was not complete, When Venus thought on a deceit.

Swift's Miscellany. If your general acquaintance be among ladies, provided they have no ill reputation, you think you Swift.

are safe.

If a man had an ill-favoured nose, deep thinkers would impute the cause to the prejudice of his edu

cation.

Id.

Can it be thought that I have kept the gospel terms of salvation, without ever so much as intending, in any serious and deliberate manner, either to know them or keep them? Law.

THIONVILLE, a town in the north-east of France, on the Moselle, the capital of an arrondissement, has a fine wooden bridge, defended by a horn-work, and is of considerable strength. Its population, amounting to 5500, manufacture stockings, hats, and other small articles; but derive their chief subsistence from the expenditure of the garrison. Seventeen miles north of Metz, and twenty-two south of Luxemburg.

THIRD, adj. } Sax. ridda. The first THIRDLY, adv. after the second; the ordinal of three in the third place.

odd numbers.

This is the third time: I hope good luck lies in Shakspeare. First, metals are more durable than plants; secondly, they are more solid; thirdly, they are wholly

Bacon.

subterrany. Such clamours are like the feigned quarrels of combined cheats, to delude some third person.

Decay of Piety.

Divide the natural day into twenty-four equal parts, an hour into sixty minutes, a minute into sixty seconds, a second into sixty thirds. Holder on Time. The protestant subjects of the abbey make up a third of its people. Addison.

THIRLBY (Styan), LL. D., a learned English critic, born in 1692. He wrote a Defence of the Trinity, and other works, and edited Justin's Works, in fol. 1723. He died in 1753.

THIRSK, a borough and market-town of the North Riding of York. Eight miles S. S. E. of

Northallerton, and 223 north by west of London, lying on each side the small river Codbeck, over which there are two stone bridges. One part is called the Old, the other the New Town. The church is a fine old building, erected out of the ruins of its castle, destroyed by Henry II., and the Quakers and Methodists have chapels here. In the town are several excellent charity schools. It is a borough by prescription, and sends two members to parliament, chosen by the burgageholders of that part called Old Thirsk. The returning officer is the bailiff. This town has a bank. Market on Monday. Fairs, first Monday before Lent, April 5th, August 5th, October 29th, and first Tuesday after St. Andrew's day for cattle, cheese, linens, pedlary, &c. It is a curacy.

Saxon dynst;

THIRST, n. s., v. n., & v. a.Belgic durst;

THIRST INESS, n. s. THIRST'Y, adj.

Swedish torst.

The pain suffered for want of drink; want of drink: hence eagerness; vehement desire: to feel want of drink; have vehement desire; to want to drink the state of being thirsty; suffering want of drink.

My soul thirsteth for the living God. Ps. xlii. 2. Give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. Judges iv. They shall not hunger nor thirst. Isaiah, xlix. 10. Exod. xvii. 3. The people thirsted there for water. Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drank, Broached with the steely point of Clifford's lance. Shakspeare.

Not hope of praise, nor thirst of worldly good, Enticed us to follow this emprize. Fairfax. Next they will want a sucking and soaking thirstiness, or a fiery appetite to drink in the lime. Wotton. But fearless they pursue, nor can the flood Quench their dire thirst; alas! they thirst for blood. Denham.

Thou hast allayed the thirst I had of knowledge.

Untamed and fierce the tiger still remains; For the kind gifts of water and of food, He seeks his keeper's flesh, and thirsts his blood. Prior.

liquor of the stomach. Thirst is the sign of an acriThirst and hunger denote the state of spittle and mony commonly alkalescent or muriatick.

Arbuthnot on Aliments. Say, is't thy bounty, or thy thirst of praise?

Granville. This is an active and ardent thirst after happiness, or after a full beatifying object. Cheyne. But furious thirsting thus for gore, The sons of men shall ne'er approach thy shore.

Pope

For forty years

I've lived an anchorite in prayers and tears:
You spring, which bubbles from the mountain's side,
Harte.
Has all the luxury of thirst supplied.

THIRTEEN, adj.) Saxon peorine. Ten
THIRTEENTH'. S and three.
Speaking at the one end, I heard in return the
voice thirteen times. Bacon's Natural History.

If she could prove a thirteenth task for him Who twelve achieved, the work would me beseem. Beaumont's Psyche. The thirteenth part difference bringeth the business but to such a pass, that every woman may have a husband.

Graunt.

The roots of thistles have my hunger fed, Two roods of cultured barley give me bread, A rock my pillow, and green moss my bed. Harte.

THISTLE, ORDER OF THE, or order of St. Andrew, a military order of knighthood in Scotland, the rise and institution of which is variously related by different authors. Lesley, bishop of Ross, reports, that the night before the battle between Athelstan king of Northumberland, and Hungus king of the Picts, a bright cross, in form of that whereon St. Andrew (the tutelar saint of Scotland) suffered martyrdom, appeared to Hungus; who, having gained the victory, ever after bore the figure of that cross on his banners. Others assert that Achaius king of Scotland first instituted this order, after having made the famous league offensive and defensive with Charlemagne king of France; while some refer the beginning of this order to Charles VII. of France. The chief and principal ensign is a gold collar composed of thistles and sprigs of rue interlinked with amulets of gold, having pendant thereto the image of St. Andrew with his cross, and the motto, NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT. The ordinary or common ensign worn by the knights is a star of four silver points, and over them a green circle bordered and lettered with gold, containing the said motto, and in the centre is a thistle; all which is embroidered on their left breast, and worn with the collar, with a green riband over the left shoulder, and brought under the right arm; pendant thereto is the image of St. Andrew with his cross, in a purple robe, within an oval of gold enamelled vert, with the former motto; but sometimes they wear, encircled in the same manner, a thistle crowned. About the time of the Reformation this order was dropped, till James II. of Great Britain resumed it by creating eight knights. The Revolution