▪ I. third, a. (adv.), n.
(θɜːd)
Forms: see below.
[OE. þridda, -e, þird(d)a, -e, Comm. Teut. and Indo-Eur.; = OFris. thredda, OS. thriddio (MLG. drudde, derde, Du. derde), OHG. dritto (MHG., G. dritte), ON. þriðe, -i (Sw. tredje, Da. tredie), Goth. þridja,:—OTeut. *þriđjó-,:—Indo-Eur. *tritjós: cf. Gr. τρίτος, L. tertius, Skr. trtīyas.
The metathesis of third for thrid appears already in ONorthumb. c 950, but thrid was the prevalent type down to the 16th c.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
(α) 1 (3) þridda, 2–5 þridde, 3 þride, 4 þryd(e, threid, þred, 4–5 thrydde, thride, þrid, thridd, 4–6 thridde, thryd, thredde, 4–7 thred, 4–6, Sc. –8 thrid, 5 thryde, thrudde, (tryd).
| a 800 Cynewulf Christ 726 Wæs se þridda hlyp. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 298 Þridde mæᵹen is. c 1200 Ormin Ded. 6 Broþerr min i Godess hus, Ȝet o þe þride [elsewhere þridde] wise. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3516 Ðe ðridde moneð in is cumen. a 1300 Cursor M. 8471 (Cott.) Þe thride boke efter þa tua. Ibid. 16892 To rise þe thrid [Gött. thred] dai. Ibid. 18646 To þe thrid [G. threid] morn. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 300 The Iolef Iapheth watz gendered þe þryd. 1382 Wyclif Acts xx. 9 He ledd by sleep fel down fro the thridde stage. c 1450 Two Cookery-bks. 113 (Laud MS.) Ye thrudde perty shal be sugar. 1588 A. King tr. Canisius' Catech. Kalendar 1 Feb., S. Ignatius bischop of Antioch threid efter S. Peter. 1606 Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1816) IV. 279/2 The thrid day of this instant. c 1730 Thrid [see B. I. 1]. |
(
β) 1 (
Northumb.)
ðirda,
ðirdda, 2
þerdde, 4
þirde, 5–6
thyrd(e, 5–7
thirde, 6
theyrd,
thurd, 5–
third.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Luke xii. 38 ᵹif on ða ðirdda wacan ᵹe-cymeð. a 1200 Moral Ode 138 (Lamb. MS.) Nolde he for al middenerd þe þerdde [v.r. þridde] [dei] þer abiden. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xxii. 264 And matheu þe þirde. 1446 Lydg. Nightingale Poems i. 299 Ye that are in the third age Of your lyfe ande passed morow & prime. 1473 J. Warkworth Chron. (Camden) 3 In the thyrde ȝere of the reygne of Kynge Edwarde. 1552 Huloet, Thyrde fayre or market proclaymed. |
B. Signification.
I. adj. As with other ordinals, usually
the third: see
the def. article B. 18.
1. The ordinal numeral corresponding to the cardinal three: last of three; that comes next after the second.
a. with
n. expressed.
| a 800 [see A. α]. 971 Blickl. Hom. 15 Þy þriddan dæᵹe he of deaþe ariseþ. a 1225 Ancr. R. 14 Þe þridde dole. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 1664 Here bigynnes þe thred part. 1497 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 141 The thryde day of Marche. 1533 Bellenden Livy iii. xi. (S.T.S.) I. 292 To be haldin þe thrid day eftir þe nundinis. 1552 Huloet, Thyrde sillable, ante penultima. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 30/1 The finger called Medicus, or thirde finger. c 1730 Burt Lett. N. Scotl. (1818) I. 20 Inquire for such a launde.., where the gentleman stayd, at the thrid stair, that is three stories high. 1847 Helps Friends in C. I. vi. 92, I prefer real life..where there is no third volume [as in a novel] to make things straight. |
b. Following the names of sovereigns, popes, etc.:
cf. second A. 1 b.
| 1414 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 59/2 Kyng Henry the Thridde. 1550 Bale K. Johan (Camden) 42 Pope Innocent the thred. 1735 Johnson Lobo's Abyssinia, Descr. v. 73 King John the Third [of Portugal]. |
c. with
n. understood.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xxii. 26 ᵹelic ðe æftera..& ðe ðirda [Rushw. þridde]. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 133 Ðreo þing..þet oðer is goddes word and þet ðridde is weldede. a 1300 Cursor M. 358 (Cott.) Þ e thrid es air, and fir þe ferth. 1382 Wyclif Dan. v. 7 Shal be the thrid in my rewme. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xv. 51 (Harl. MS.) And so he wrote to the thrid, þat seid she lovid him. 1552–3 Inv. Ch. Goods, Staffs. in Ann. Lichfield (1863) IV. 70, iij vestements, one of whyte fustian, another of blacke chamblet, & the thryd of blewe sarsynet. 1662 Playford Skill Mus. ii. (1674) 92 Six strings,..the first..is called the Treble; the second, the Small Mean; the third, the Great Mean. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xxxviii, ‘Hush! thou knave!’ said a third; ‘how know'st thou who may be within hearing?’ |
d. Gram. In
third person: see
person n. 8. Also in
third declension,
third conjugation, and in names of tenses, as
third future,
third preterite, where the reference is to a conventional order of enumeration adopted by grammarians.
| 1530 Palsgr. 93 In verbes of theyr thyrde conjugation I fynde a litell more difficultie. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia ii. (Sommer) 137 He had..forgotten in speaking of him selfe to vse the third person. 1764 W. Primatt Accentus Rediv. 111 Provided they were third persons plural. 1848 J. T. White Xenophon's Anab. ii. iv. §5 Notes (1872) 116 Sometimes..the third future is used, instead of the common future, to point out more forcibly all but immediate occurrence of some future action. 1857 Williams Sanskrit Gram. §415 Fortunately..the third preterite occurs but rarely in the better specimens of Hind{uacu} composition. |
e. In proverbial
phr. (the) third time('s) lucky.
| [c 1840 Browning Lett. (1933) 5 ‘The luck of the third adventure’ is proverbial.] 1862 A. Hislop Proverbs Scotl. 194 The third time's lucky. 1882 R. L. Stevenson New Arabian Nights II. 59 ‘The next time we come to blows―’ ‘Will make the third,’ I interrupted... ‘Ay, true... Well, the third time's lucky.’ 1942 N. Marsh Death & Dancing Footman vii. 123 It was a glancing blow..but..it might have been my head... One of them's saying to himself: ‘Third time lucky’. 1979 J. Tate tr. Blom's Limits of Pain ix. 82 Lars Westerberg discovered that the expression third time lucky had something in it. |
2. a. Additional to and distinct from two others already known or mentioned.
third person (in
Law)
= third party.
† third place, a place which is neutral ground to two persons (
obs.).
| c 1290 Beket 415 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 118 Þat þridde þing ȝeot mest of alle and sonest in wrathþe hem brouȝte. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 3 And þe þrid, if he be moost obedient to God and to His lawe. 1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Familye of Loue 17 b, Incorporall and immateriall essences cannot be coupled in the same third matter. 1709 E. Ward tr. Cervantes 189 Any thing is easily believ'd that is to the Disreputation of a third Person. 1757 Chesterfield Lett. 31 Dec., I could neither visit, nor be visited by, the Ministers of those two Crowns; but we met every day, or dined at third places. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) I. 444 The clause..extends..to third persons only; not to the persons conveying, or those to whom lands are conveyed to uses. 1865 Kingsley Herew. xvii, Martin Lightfoot..was as a third hand and foot to him all day long. 1878 Stewart & Tait Unseen Univ. iv. §122. 133 There can be no third thing besides body and void. [Cf. tertium quid.] |
† b. third tongue, a backbiter; a slanderer. Used by Wyclif and Coverdale to render
lingua tertia of the Vulgate, in LXX. γλῶσσα τρίτη.
Obs.| 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. xxviii. 16 The thridde tunge manye men stirede. 1388 Ibid. 19 margin, The tunge of the preuey bacbiter is clepid the thridde tunge..and the bacbiter him silf hath the thridde tunge, for he, as the thridde, makith debate betwen a man and his neiȝbore. 1535 Coverdale Ecclus. xxviii. 14–15 The thirde tonge hath disquieted many one, and dryuen them from one londe to another... The thirde tonge hath cast out many an honest woman, and robbed them of their labours. |
3. third part = B. II. i. Now
rare: see
part n. 5.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 973 (Cott.) Þe half parte gladli or þe thrid We wil þe giue. 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 305 Þe thrid part went to þe forray. 1483 Cath. Angl. 385/2 Þe Thryd parte of a halpeny, trissis. 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent 228 The Monkes should enioy the whole tongue, and two third partes of the rest of the body. 1611 Bible Rev. viii. 8 The third part of the sea became blood. |
4. a. The last of each successive group of three; one in every three,
i.e. one third of the whole.
third penny: one third of the whole sum;
spec. (see
quot. 1706).
third sheaf and teind: see
third and teind, II. i.
| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xix. 87 Sum..at ilke a thridd passe knelis doune apon þe erthe. 1423 Cal. Letter Bk. I. Lond. (1909) 295 Have he, for his labour, the tryd peny that shal be recovered. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) II. 315 Thair come in be sie sa meikill victuallis that it come downe the thrid penny. 1597 [see every 1 e (c)]. 1627 Rep. Parishes Scotl. (Bann. Cl.) 3 Ten landis..payis presentlie the thrid scheiff and teind led. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Third-penny, the third part of Fines and Profits, arising from Law-Processes, which in every County was heretofore allow'd to the Sheriff; the other two Parts being appointed for the King's Use. 1727 Swift Poisoning E. Curll Wks. 1755 III. i. 152 You shall have your third share of the Court poems. 1904 [see quartan A. 1, def.]. |
b. third-day ague, tertian ague.
| 1817–18 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 319 You would frighten him into a third-day ague. |
5. With following superlative: having two superior in the specified attribute; third in point of quality, position, etc.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce xiii. 321 He was the thrid best knycht, perfay, That men wist liffand in his day. 1859 Habits Gd. Soc. iii. 155, I am wondering whether everybody arranges his wardrobe as our ungrammatical nurses used to do ours, under the heads of ‘best, second-best, third-best’, and so on. 1962 E. Snow Other Side of River (1963) lxvii. 508 In 1960 it was the world's third-greatest reservoir. Ibid. lxxv. 577 The most significant additions to China's third-largest educational center are the T'ung Chi Medical College and hospitals. 1979 Dædalus Winter 62 Pursuing policies that would be optimal in a first-class world when one actually lives in a..third-best world can be highly inefficient. |
6. Combinations, collocations, or phrases with special meaning (some of which may be used
attrib. or as adj.), as
third base,
third baseman,
third cousin,
third cousinship,
third form (hence
third-former),
third heir,
third-level,
third magnitude,
third person,
third realm,
third-stage,
third story,
third term (hence
third-termery): see the
ns.;
third ague, tertian ague;
third-day, the Quaker name for Tuesday, as being the third day of the week;
third dimension, the dimension of thickness or depth (see
dimension n. 3 a); hence
third-dimensional a.;
third ear esp. in
Psychoanalysis, a figurative ear which listens intuitively for what lies behind the words heard by the actual ears;
third estate, the Commons: see
estate n. 6;
third eye Hinduism and
Buddhism, the eye of insight or destruction located in the middle of the forehead of the god Siva; hence
transf., the power of inward or intuitive sight occasionally gained by humans;
third eyelid, the nictitating membrane of many animals;
third floor, (
a) in England, the floor or story of a building separated by two from the ground floor; (
b) in
Sc.,
U.S., etc., the third story, counting the ground floor as the first;
third flute Mus., a flute pitched a minor third above the ordinary flute (see
quots.);
third force,
Third Force [after
Fr. Troisième Force], a political party or parties standing between two extreme or opposing parties (formerly,
esp. between the French Gaullists and Communists); also
loosely, any neutral power or third body;
third-generation attrib.: see
generation 4 b;
third-grader N. Amer., a pupil in the third grade (
grade n. 4 c) at school;
third hour, (
a) among the Jews, the third of the twelve equal divisions of time between morning and evening; the hour between 8 and 9 a.m.; (
b) in
R.C.Ch., the hour of
tierce;
third house, (
U.S. Polit. slang): see
quot. 1889;
Third International: see
international n. b;
third man, (
a)
Cricket, a fielder placed between point and short slip, but further out; an additional short slip; also, the position occupied by him; (
b)
Lacrosse, a defence player placed behind the centre; the position occupied by him; (
c)
Philos. [
Gr. τρίτος ἄνθρωπος], a term from Aristotle (
Metaphysics Bk. A 990b 17) for a third element (or man) which, in the paradox stated in Plato's
Parmenides, seems to be needed in arguments from the particular instance (of a man) to the ideal form (of Man); hence
attrib., as
third-man argument; (
d)
Boxing slang, the referee; (
e) an unidentified third participant in a crime;
third market U.S., trade in stock undertaken outside the stock exchange;
cf. off-board a.;
third order: see
tertiary A. 5;
third penny: see 4 above;
† third place: see 2 above;
third point,
Arch. = tierce point: see
quot.; hence
third-pointed a.;
Third Position, a name applied to the political stance of Juan Domingo Perón (1895–1974), President of Argentina (1944–55 and 1973–4), being neither capitalist nor communist, but a combination of Fascism and socialism;
cf. Justicialism,
Peronism;
Third Programme, (from 1946 to 1967, when its name was changed to ‘Radio 3’: see
radio n. 2 d) one of the three national radio networks of the BBC, broadcasting programmes of a predominantly cultural nature; often used allusively to qualify what is considered intellectually superior or ‘highbrow’;
third rail, (
a) in some systems of electric railways, an additional rail which conveys the current;
cf. conductor rail s.v. conductor 12 d; an additional rail for the accommodation of trains with a wider gauge; (
b)
U.S. slang, used
attrib. to designate highly intoxicating liquor;
third reading,
Third Reading, the third and final presentation of a parliamentary bill after amendments have been made, sometimes allowing for a final debate before it is voted on;
cf. reading vbl. n. 2 c;
third rime,
rhyme,
= terza rima;
third season man,
= third year man;
third sex: see
sex n. 1 d;
third slip: see
slip n.3 14 c;
third staff,
= third stave;
† third state,
= third estate;
third stave: see
quot.;
third stream (also hyphenated and with capital initials), a style of music which combines elements of jazz and classical music (see
quots.);
† third tongue: see 2 b above;
third ventricle, that portion of the central cavity of the brain that lies between the optic thalami;
third wave [in allusion to Plato's metaphor (
Republic 472 a) τὸ µέγιστον τῆς τρικυµίας ‘the greatest of the three waves’], the last and most forceful of three successive arguments or propositions;
third way,
Third Way, used in a variety of contexts to designate a third possible ideology or solution to a problem (see
quots.);
Third World War, a hypothetical third war involving the majority of the world's nations (
cf. First World War s.v. first a. C. 2;
Second World War s.v. second a. 7 a);
third year man, a student who has entered upon the third (often the last) year of a course of study; see also
year1 3 b.
| 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 131 In the very fit of a *Third Ague. |
| 1845 in Appleton's Ann. Cycl. 1885 (1886) XXV. 77/2 A ball knocked outside the range of the first or *third base is foul. 1946 Chicago Sun 2 July 25/3 He can start a club that would have a Red Sox star at every position except third base and right field. |
| 1857 Spirit of Times 7 Feb. 373/1 Mr. Scott, their *third base man is always at his post. 1936 O. Nash Primrose Path 38 Long have I wondered why a locomotive engineer should be so much nicer than an ambassador or a novelist or a banker or a third-baseman or a quartermaster or a lancer. 1978 Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. (Detroit Suppl.) 23/3 Phil spent all of 1977 with Tigers and figures to be the club's 3rd baseman of the future. |
| 1840 Lytton Money i. ii. 7 You are very, very, very distantly connected with the deceased—a *third cousin, I think? 1921 G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah ii. 65 They are all third cousins of somebody with a title or a park. |
| 1901 Daily News 31 Jan. 7/3 The *third-cousinships of German Princes. |
| 1677 in Penn Trav. Holland (1694) 9 A Monthly Meeting..upon the third *third day of the Month. |
| 1858 *Third dimension [see dimension 3 a]. 1923 H. Crane Let. 20 Jan. (1965) 116, I prefer Egyptian sculpture to the Greek, and this book makes me feel that the Greeks had more to express in line and design than they had in the third dimension. 1964 M. McLuhan Understanding Media (1967) i. i. 28 He acquires the illusion of the third dimension. |
| 1934 H. C. Warren Dict. Psychol. 277/1 *Third-dimensional. 1937 Univ. Calif. Publ. Mod. Philol. XX. 188 Only with such a spray [sc. lipiodol] can the third-dimensional aspect be brought out, giving vivid pictures of the epiglottis and tongue. 1954 Ann. Reg. 1953 365 Third dimensional (3-D) or stereoscopic films viewed through polaroid spectacles were no novelty in London. |
| 1907 H. Zimmern tr. Nietzsche's Beyond Good & Evil viii. 202 What a torture are books written in German to a reader who has a *third ear... These were my thoughts when I noticed how..unintuitively two masters in the art of prose-writing have been confounded. 1948 T. Reik Listening with Third Ear ii. xv. 144 The psychoanalyst has to learn how one mind speaks to another beyond words and silence. He must learn to listen ‘with the third ear’. 1979 F. Kermode Genesis of Secrecy i. 5 The best psychoanalysts are admired..for their powers of divination, for the acuteness of their third ear. |
| 1604 in Rymer Fœdera XVI. 562/1 Knightes and Burgesses..doe present the Bodie of the *Thirde Estate. 1855 F. B. Wells tr. Thierry (title), The Formation and Progress of the Tiers {Eacu}tat, or Third Estate in France. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xv. 185 That portion of the third estate which was represented by the knights of the shire. |
| 1810 E. Moor Hindu Pantheon 36 He [sc. Siva] has a *third eye in his forehead, pointing up and down. 1921 [see satori]. 1936 Dylan Thomas Twenty-Five Poems 38 No third eye probe into a rainbow's sex That bridged the human halves. 1978 S. Gooch Paranormal v. 202 It is the pineal gland to which the Hindu mystics of 3000 years ago gave the name of ‘the third eye’—the ‘eye’ of clairvoyance and second sight. |
| 1822–34 *Third eyelid [see nictitating ppl. a.]. 1892 C. S. Minot Human Embryol. (1897) xxviii. 727 The third eyelid is well developed in birds, etc., but is rudimentary in man. 1983 Sci. Amer. Apr. 86/2 When a cat falls asleep..its eyes close, and the nictitating membrane (the ‘third eyelid’) covers part of the eye under the outer eyelids. |
| 1908 Daily Chron. 14 Aug. 8/6 Immediately after the arrival of the *third-floor-back lodger a transformation takes place. |
| 1876 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms 433/2 *Third flute. [Terzflöte]. 1906 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 434/2 There is also a flute in E♭ (often spoken of as the third flute in F, but tuned to E♭), which transposes a minor third higher. 1954 Grove's Dict. Mus. (ed. 5) III. 168/1 In the 18th century this [sc. the Flute in F] was known as the ‘third’ flute or ‘tierce’, since it stood in pitch a minor third above the ordinary flute, whose lowest note at that time was most usually d{p}. |
| [1933 Esprit 1 Sept. 718 Le projet qui suit a été établi par le Comité économique du mouvement de la Troisième Force et adopté par son Congrès National, à Tours, les 28 et 29 juillet.] 1936 E. Burns tr. Thorez's France To-day & People's Front iv. xxv. 228 The ‘new economic régime’ proposed in the ‘*Third Force’ plan is dressed up in anti-Capitalist garb to make it capable of attracting and winning over the masses. 1951 N. Mitford Blessing ii. xi. 256 Mr Clarkley, more interested in French politics than English elegance, began asking a few questions about the Third Force. 1955 G. Greene Quiet American ii. iii. 160 There was always a Third Force to be found free from Communism and the taint of colonialism—national democracy he called it. 1956 Foreign Affairs XXXV. 60 An armed ‘third force’. 1963 Listener 31 Jan. 194/2 Some Europeans have a vision of a great power arising to take its place alongside the Soviet Union and the United States—a third force, possibly armed with a separate European deterrent free of American control. 1971 Irish News 31 Aug. 1 What was needed was an immediate increase in the strength of the UDR—or if necessary the formation of a ‘third force’. 1974 Times 27 Feb. 6/2 A doubling of the vote for the third-force candidates would still leave the relative positions of the Conservative and Labour parties unaffected on current evidence from the polls. 1981 Daily Tel. 24 Nov. 1/4 The ‘third force’ which Loyalist hardliners have formed as their own anti-IRA vigilante group made its first significant appearance on the streets during a commemoration service for terrorist victims. |
| 1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 63 So old a Phrase,..that it has been in twenty *third-Form School-Boys Exercises. |
| 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. ii, A *third-former nearly six feet high. |
| 1962 A. Lurie Love & Friendship i. 19 You make me sound like a *third-grader. ‘I learned simple division, Mummy, and drew a picture of an Eskimo.’ |
| c 1400 20 Pol. Poems xxvi. 208 Men seyen ‘good geten vntrewly, The *iijde eyre browke hit ne may’. 1484 Caxton Fables of Auian xviii, Of the thynge wrongfully and euylle goten, the thyrd heyre shalle neuer be possessour of hit. |
| 1382 Wyclif Acts ii. 15 It is the *thridde our of the day. 1706 tr. Dupin's Eccl. Hist. 16th C. II. v. 43 Called Tierce, because it began at the Third Hour of the day. |
| 1849 Alta California (San Francisco) 31 Dec. 1 The solicitude manifested by the members of the legislature to ascertain where they are to get their mileage and per diem, is a subject of much jocularity among the *third house. 1889 Farmer Dict. Amer. s.v. Lobby, The lobby is also called the ‘Third House’. 1950 Look 31 Jan. 24/1 In a state where the Third House, the lobbyists,..spend millions every year.., a legislator going on a payroll for 75 bucks a week is looked upon as just a precedent-setting price-cutter, undermining the foundations of a fine profession. |
| 1959 M. Schlauch Eng. Lang. in Mod. Times iv. 121 These deviations from strictly completed structure, occurring in formal discourse, are obviously very different from the rambling repetitions, the loose pleonasms and unfinished statements of *third-level speech as exemplified in Juliet's nurse. 1975 Cork Examiner 30 May 10/4 About 55,200 students were expected to leave the primary, post-primary and third-level education this year. |
| 1905 Westm. Gaz. 13 Feb. 10/1 In the constellation of the Twins, near the *third-magnitude star Mu. |
| 1801 T. Taylor tr. Aristotle's Metaphysics i. vii. 26 Some make ideas of things relative, of which we do not say there is an essential genus, and some assert that there is a *third man. 1851 F. Lillywhite Guide to Cricketers 23 If Long-slip is required, take the Third man away. 1871 Hoppe, Third man, einer der fielders im Cricket. 1881 Standard 14 June 3/8 The catch that dismissed him was an easy one at third man. 1891 W. G. Grace Cricket 260 Third man must ask the bowler whether he should stand rather fine or square. 1897 E. T. Sachs in S. Christopherson et al. Hockey & Lacrosse 104 In third man I like a powerful player, and a tall. 1916 A. E. Taylor in Proc. Aristotelian Soc. XVI. 255 What I propose to show is that the appeal to the regress..is certainly not what Aristotle usually has in mind when he speaks of a certain type of argument as the ‘third man’. 1920 S. Alexander Space, Time, & Deity I. ii. iii. 218 This objection..is analogous to one of the kinds of objection taken in ancient Greece to the Forms under the name of the argument of the ‘third man’. 1924 W. D. Ross Aristotle's Metaphysics I. 195 Other forms of the ‘third man’ argument. 1927 J. Palmer Recoll. Boxing Referee i. 2, I have acted as third man in the ring on at least three thousand occasions. 1949 G. Greene in Amer. Mag. Mar. 142 (title) The 3rd Man. Ibid. 149/2 And the third man? Who was he? 1954 Philos. Rev. LXIII. 342 Plato could neither convince himself that the Third Man Argument was valid, nor refute it convincingly. 1960 M. Golesworthy Encycl. Boxing 171/2 Corri..was the third man in the ring for the middleweight bout. 1964 Lacrosse (‘Know the Game’ Ser.) 34/2 Third Man should mark Third Home closely. 1977 M. Green Children of Sun (rev. ed.) ix. 434 Kim Philby was finally identified as the ‘Third Man’, in 1963, when he too fled to Moscow. |
| 1964 Wall Street Jrnl. 15 Jan. 1/6 A 10-man Big Board committee..is..studying the expanding role of off-board trading, or the ‘*third market’ as it has come to be known. (The other two are the exchange markets and the over-the-counter market in unlisted securities.) |
| 1629 Wadsworth Pilgr. vii. 72 There is besides another Nunnery of the *third Order of St. Francis. 1753 Challoner Cath. Chr. Instr. 184 Besides these there are the..Nuns of the third Order of St. Francis. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 24 Dec. 6/3 The..version of the Rule of the Third Order found..in the Capistran Convent in the Abruzzi. |
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., *Third Point, or Tierce-point, in architecture, the point of section in the vertex of an equilateral triangle. Arches or vaults of the third point..are those consisting of two arches of a circle, meeting in an angle a-top. |
| 1868 G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers (1959) 186 The nave is very long, the roof, *Third-Pointed, very low... The Third-Pointed altar-screen..and the choir screen..were beautiful in design and proportion. |
| 1953 *Third Position [see Peronism]. 1971 Third Position [see justicialism]. |
| 1946 Times 1 July 8/3 The future of broadcasting and television was outlined by Sir William Haley... He said that a *third programme was planned and awaited only the completion of the Brookman's Park high mast. 1946 Whitaker's Almanack 1947 349/2 The Third Programme, introduced on Sept. 29, 1946, is broadcast on 203·5 metres and 514·6 metres. 1946 Lancet 21 Dec. 921/1 Oh yes, I've met him, of course—awfully decent fellow and all that, but frightfully Third Programme! 1951 J. B. Priestley Festival at Farbridge ii. i. 145 She had fine eyes but a rather ugly despairing sort of mouth, as if she came out of one of those Greek tragedies on the Third Programme. 1960 Guardian 22 July 6/3 The lectures—one of the ‘Third Programme’ ventures that Radio Eireann manages to squeeze in to its narrow broadcasting hours. 1966 H. Ogdon in ‘H. MacDiarmid’ Company I've Kept ii. 56 In England, of course, it [sc. an Indian naga] is esoteric, ‘Third Programme’; a thesis could be written on it. 1980 Daily Tel. 29 May 14/6 MacNeice's most famous two plays..had an impact on a mass Home Service audience before he and his work disappeared into the Third Programme. |
| 1867 Commercial & Financial Chron. 29 June 808 It is throughout a double track road, and a *third rail is laid..for the accommodation of the wide cars of that line. 1890 Jrnl. Franklin Inst. CXXIX. 268 In 1879, Dr. Werner Siemens constructed and operated an exhibition railway... A third rail centrally placed between the other two was used as the outgoing conductor. 1901 Westm. Gaz. 23 July 4/3 A new electric railway..built on the ‘third rail’ system, which is believed to represent a great economy as compared with the overhead system. 1905 Daily Chron. 2 Feb. 3/4 Avoiding the dangers which had been experienced with the third-rail system. 1916 Gazette-News (Asheville, N. Carolina) 7 Jan. 1/2 This recipe is for fourteen and one-half gallons of the ‘third-rail’ liquor. 1929 J. Callahan Man's Grim Justice i. 4 A shot of the third-rail booze that the Silver Alley joints peddled. 1972 Modern Railways Sept. 331/3 Invalides is the terminus of the Western Region 750V third-rail service to Versailles Rive Gauche. Ibid. 332/3 From October 1, the third-rail electric trains from Paris St Lazare to St Germain will be replaced by 1500V dc RER trains. |
| 1656 H. Phillips Purch. Patt. (1676) A iv b, An house of the *third rate. |
| ? 1571 House of Commons Orig. Jrnls. 14 Apr. II. 16 The Bill for Seweres the *thirde readinge. 1878 W. Stubbs Constitutional Hist. England III. xx. 466 It [sc. a bill] is brought up for a third reading, debated again if necessary, read a third time and passed. a 1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1976) II. 407 Though we had 116 to start with there were only ninety-nine left when the Third Reading vote came. |
| 1908 W. James Let. 9 Jan. in R. B. Perry Tht. & Char. W. James (1935) II. 485 Surely truth can't inhabit a *third realm between realities and statements or beliefs. 1957 G. Ryle in M. Black Importance of Lang. (1962) 167 It is..positively misleading to speak as if there existed a Third Realm whose denizens are Meanings. |
| 1820 Byron Let. to Murray Wks. (1846) 505/1 You will find..in *third rhyme (terza rima),..Fanny of Rimini. |
| a 1860 Alb. Smith Lond. Med. Stud. (1861) 17 His mentor is ready in the shape of a *third-season man. |
| 1961 Lancet 5 Aug. 321/1 We had a total of 236 calls, of which 177 were for *third-stage complications. 1967 J. H. Sudd Introd. Behaviour Ants vi. 125 Large third-stage larvae are fed more often than small ones of the same stage. |
| 1667 E. Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. i. xix. (1684) 322 Of the *Third State, or Commons of England. |
| 1898 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, *Third Stave, a name given to the stave upon which pedal music is written for the organ. |
| 1679 Moxon Mech. Exerc. vii. 130 Your Ground-plot, or second or *third Story. 1930 W. B. Yeats Wild Apples 16 The third-story skylarks are singing again. |
| 1960 N.Y. Times 17 May 44 Gunther Schuller..has been heralding the arrival of what he calls a ‘*third stream’ of music—a music that is neither jazz nor ‘classical’ but that draws on the techniques of both. 1962 W. Balliett Dinosaurs in Morning 214 ‘What about the third stream?’ I asked. ‘I [sc. Gunther Schuller] coined the term as an adjective, not a noun... This music is only beginning. I conceive of it as the result of two tributaries—one from the stream of classical music and one from the other stream, jazz—that have recently flowed out toward each other. 1977 Times Lit. Suppl. 11 Feb. 144/5 The heady days of the ‘Third Stream’ of the late 1950s, when it seemed possible that string quartets and free-form saxophonists might sit down and make common cause together. |
| 1890 Cincinnati Commerc. Gaz. 30 June, There would be no *third termery in it, as he [Pres. Cleveland] had not two consecutive terms. |
| 1866 Swinburne Poems & Ballads 43 Who swims in sight of the great *third wave That never a swimmer shall cross or climb. 1933 Mind. XLII. 175 We come now to the ‘third wave’ of the discussion. 1965 Observer 4 Apr. 31/3 The third wave in the tide of emancipation. |
| 1949 *Third way [see phenomenology b]. 1956 Sun (Baltimore) 11 Oct. (B ed.) 16/2 People ‘in the know’ in Holland have been talking about the influence over the Queen held by a faith-healer... The healer..professes to be uninterested in politics, but she is closely connected with a movement called ‘The Third Way’, something like the ‘Third Force’ which swept Europe after the war. The movement is strongly neutralist and pacifist..and is opposed to Holland's commitments to NATO. 1972 Times 13 Aug. 16/2 At present, the only possible alternative route for the big tanker lies some 1,200 miles to the south... The idea of a ‘third way’, as it is often called here, could be attractive to the Japanese. |
| 1947 Civil & Mil. Gaz. 27 May 16/3 Sir John Boyd Orr..said in an interview..that a *Third World War would be in the making unless some sort of world food plan was established. 1976 Glasgow Herald 26 Nov. 6/4 He is correct when he says that ‘dreaming of a world free from conflict will get nowhere’, but working for such a world is a different proposition, and unless people are prepared to devote time and energy to that end there can only be a third world war. |
II. n. 1. A third part (B. I. 3)
of anything; any one of three equal parts into which a whole may be divided.
third and teind, one-third of the produce and one-tenth of the remainder (making two-fifths of the whole) paid as rent.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Macc. x. 29 Nowe Y assoile ȝou..of tributis, and I forȝeue to ȝou the pricis of salt, and forȝeue crownys, and the thriddis [1388 thridde part] of seed. 1479 Act. Dom. Conc. (1839) 32/2 Þat þe schiref..deliuer þe said vmfra & his tennandis ane evinly thrid þarof. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. v. iv. 19 Men, Who of their broken Debtors take a third, A sixth, a tenth, letting them thriue againe. 1705 Addison Italy 136 No Sentence can stand that is not confirm'd by Two Thirds of this Council. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 139 In most parts of Strathallan, the land is kept in thirds, (i.e.) one third in tillage for three year, and two thirds always grass. 1852 R. F. Burton Falconry in Vall. Indus vi. 71 One will require at least a third more breaking than another. 1884 J. Tait in U.P. Mag. Apr. 156 The Master was to have the third and teind shorn and set up. 1893 Law Times XCIV. 504/1 Whether such a gift..would be divisible into moieties or thirds. |
2. Law. (Mostly
pl.) The third of the personal property of a deceased husband allowed to his widow. Also, the third of his real property to which his widow might be legally entitled for her life (
obs. exc. Hist.).
Cf. terce 2.
| 1396 in Scott. Antiq. XIV. 318 Swa mykyl as pertenys to the modyr of the forsaid Erle..be resone of hir thryd. 1540 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 106 She [the wife] to be fullie content with hir thirds. 1596 Bacon Use of Law Wks. 1879 I. 585/1 By this course of putting lands into use there were many inconveniences, as..The wife was defrauded of her thirds; the husband of being tenant by courtesy [etc.]. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. i. 113. 1636 in Crt. & Times Chas. I (1848) II. 239 Having renounced her jointure and thirds, she may be so utterly undone. 1664 Early Rec. Groton, Mass. (1880) 145 Vnto which alienation the wiues of them both doe giue their consent to the giuing vp their thirds. 1709 S. Sewall Diary 18 Nov., 30l. more to Grace, and 12. to her Brother, to come out of their Mothers Thirds now to be divided. 1767 [see dower n.2 1]. 1864 Thoreau Maine W. (1894) 207 There you are never reminded that the wilderness which you are threading is, after all, some villager's familiar wood-lot, some widow's thirds. |
† 3. A third of the proceeds of captures, or of certain fines, forfeitures, etc., of which two thirds were due to the king.
Obs.| 1429 in Rymer Fœdera X. 422 Eny Thriddes, or other Gaines of Werre. 1444 in Coll. Hist. Staff. (1891) XII. 319 The thrides of the thrides of all maner Prisoners, Prises, and wynynges. 1627 in Crt. & Times Chas. I (1848) I. 234 A commission to proceed against recusants for their thirds due to his majesty by law. |
4. Sc. Eccl. Hist. See
quot. 1838.
| 1573 Satir. Poems Reform. xlii. 812 Thir thriddis, I say, but stopping ony, The Kirkis Collectouris suld vptane, Syne vnto the Excheker gane. c 1575 Balfour's Practicks (1754) 143 The teindis, landis, maillis, fermis, and dewteis of landis assumit in the thriddis of benefices. 1586 in Dunfermline Regr. (Bann. Cl.) 449 The haill prelaceis of our reallme ar bund and obleissit to warrand their thridis to ws fra thair awin deidis. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot., Thirds... Before the annexation of the year 1587, the King, in order to prevent the entire abstraction of their provisions from the acting clergy,..assumed into his own hands a third of the revenues of all ecclesiastical benefices, which he intrusted to the Commissioners of Plat, who assigned to the ministers respectively sufficient provisions, and reserved the remainder for the King. [See plat n.3 6.] |
† 5. pl. The sum paid by an incoming freshman for the furniture, etc. of his college rooms, usually assessed at two thirds of the amount paid by the preceding tenant.
Obs.| 1687 Wilding in Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 255 Reced of my Chum for thirds. 1826 C. Wordsworth Let. in Ann. Early Life I. 38 Tell my father that I expect he will hear something about ‘the thirds’ which we pay for furniture, &c. 1853 ‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green i. iv, Mr. Filcher then explained the system of thirds, by which the furniture..was to be paid for. 1858 Hogg Shelley I. 69 Transferring the..movables to the successor on payment of thirds, that is, of two-thirds of the price last given. |
6. Mus. A note three diatonic degrees above or below a given note (both notes being reckoned); also (usually) the interval between this and the given note, equivalent either to two tones (
major third), or to one tone and one diatonic semitone (
minor third); also, the harmonic combination of two such notes.
diminished third, an interval equal to two diatonic semitones, being less by a chromatic semitone than a minor third.
| 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 70 Which distances make a Concord or consonant Harmony?..A third, a Fift, a Sixt, and an eight. 1662 Playford Skill Mus. i. v. (1674) 20 You will tune from Sol to Mi which is a Third. 1752 tr. Rameau's Treat. Musick 34 Those Notes, which are a Third above, are deemed Thirds. 1855 Browning Toccata of Galuppi's vii, Those lesser thirds so plaintive. 1855 ― Lovers' Quarrel xviii, We shall have the word In a minor third There is none but the cuckoo knows. 1884 Parry in Grove Dict. Mus. IV. 102 Third, one of the most important intervals in modern music... Three forms are met with in modern music—major, minor, and diminished. |
7. a. The third of the subdivisions of any standard measure or dimension which is successively subdivided in a constant ratio; the subdivision next below seconds: see
prime n.2 2.
† Formerly, in Scotland, a weight of account
= the 13,824th part (1{div}24
3) of a grain (
obs.).
| 1594 J. Davis Seaman's Secr. (1643) D j b, Euery degree..doth containe 60 minutes, and euery minute 60 seconds, and euery second 60 thirds, &c. 1604 in Moryson Itin. i. (1617) 282 (Tables of Scottish Weights of Coins), xx. s. [sterling] = 06 pennyweights, 10 graines, 16 mites, 18 droits, 10 periots, English Weight; 07 deniers, 21 graines, 07 primes, 01 seconds, 09 thirds, 19 fourths, Scottish Weight. 1694 Holder On Time ii. 32 To divide..an Hour into 60{p} (Minutes), a Minute into 60{pp} (Second Minutes), a Second Minute into 60{ppp} (Thirds). 1840 Lardner Geom. 56 This system of division is sometimes carried even further, a second being divided into sixty equal parts called thirds; but it is more usual to express small angles or arcs in decimal parts of a second. |
† b. In decimal fractions: see
quots. Obs.| 1660 J. Moore Arith. 10 Some call their Tenth part Primes, the Hundereth parts Seconds, the 1000 parts Thirds. 1766 Hutton School Master's Guide 55 The 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, &c. places of decimals..are denominated the places of primes, seconds, thirds, and fourths, &c. respectively. |
8. Comm. pl. Goods of the third degree of quality.
| 1768 J. Wedgwood Let. June (1965) 66 All our thirds shall be saved for you. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 163 Flour or bread,..of the usual London manufacture, as seconds, thirds, and browns. 1832 G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. 186 Crown glass is sold, according to its quality, under four different denominations—firsts, seconds, thirds, and fourths. 1888 Times (weekly ed.) 14 Sept. 19/1 Fruit should be sorted into bests and seconds and in some cases into thirds. 1903 Daily Chron. 21 Apr. 2/6 Cork butter.—Firsts, 86s.; seconds, 80s.; thirds, 78s. |
9. Elliptical uses of the
adj. passing into
n. a. third of kin (
Sc.): one related in the third degree of consanguinity.
| 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) III. 260 The erle of Arrane, lord of Hammiltoun, Evin thrid and thrid to him [that] weiris the croun. 1569 Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 39 The said Erll and the said umquhile Johnne Suthirland quha wes slane thrid and ferdis of kin [the Earl's father was cousin to John's grandmother]. 1583 Ibid. III. 622 Quha and he ar secundes and thriddes of kin. 1892 G. Stewart Shetland Fireside T. ix. (ed. 2) 71 Auld Ibbie Bartley, dat wis trids o' kin to my wife's foster midder, an' her oey. |
b. Elliptical for third person (in Grammar); third day (of the month); third chapter (of a book of the Bible); third year (of a reign).
| 1530 Palsgr. Introd. 33 The thyrde syngular [endeth]..most commenly in T. 1536 Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) II. 1 From Eltham thridde of Janua[ry]. 1539 Tonstall Serm. Palm Sund. (1823) 86 It is written in the thirde of Matthewe. 1747 Gentl. Mag. May 247/1 On Sunday the 3d of May. 1857 Williams Sanskrit Gram. §330 It is the only conjugation that rejects the nasal in the 3d. plur. |
c. A card of the third size; also
thirds card: see
quots.| 1891 Cent. Dict. s.v., Thirds card, a card 1½ by 3 inches, the size most used for a man's visiting-card. (Eng.). 1892 Chiswick Press Calendar, Sizes of Cards..Extra Thirds 3 × 17/8. Thirds 3 × 1½ in. |
d. third of exchange: the last of a set of three bills of exchange of even tenor and date: see
exchange n. 5.
e. Generally, the word omitted being usually obvious from the context;
esp. in familiar use.
| a 1635 Sibbes Confer. Christ & Mary (1656) 104 He must be a friend or enemy; there is no third in God. 1859 Habits Gd. Soc. (new ed.) 44 In the third [class railway-carriage] he will have to sit next to an odoriferous ploughboy. 1864 Bowen Logic iii. 49 The Axiom which is usually called the Law of Excluded Third. 1889 W. T. Linskill Golf iii. (1895) 15 Odd No. 1. ‘Stroke a hole’... Sometimes a ‘third’ is given, which means the application of Odd No. 1 at every third hole. 1891 Cent. Dict., Third... In base-ball, same as third base. 1900 Monthly Rev. I. 46 The Russian peasant who travels third is not accustomed to luxuries. 1902 J. E. Flecker Let. in J. Sherwood No Golden Journey (1973) iii. 37, I have got a third in Mods! 1903 Westm. Gaz. 30 Dec. 11/1 It is of course the Third Preference stock which is directly affected... Some operators are anticipating that the Thirds will get a half per cent. more than for last year. 1908 Ibid. 25 Apr. 2/3 Off they went into the stokehole, where the Third put two of them to mind the feed-checks. 1909 J. S. V. Bickford Faults & how to find Them §1173 Let us now consider a change from a lower gear to a higher (neutral to first, first to second, second to third, etc.). a 1912 Mod. Mr. A. did badly; he only got a third in Greats. 1924 C. Connolly Let. 21 Sept. in Romantic Friendship (1975) 13, I have run out of money and have to spend three nights Third in the train. 1942 Horizon Nov. 297 For the polished word of an Oxford Third Has left them cheerfully chastened. 1952 Radio Times 4 Jan. 7/3 The ‘Third’ is continuing a series of programmes on Dvo{rhacek}ák. 1970 N. Fleming Czech Point viii. 107 Melanie flipped the car deftly into third and tramped on the accelerator. 1972 P. Black Biggest Aspidistra in World iii. iv. 173 The job of the Home was to reflect..the life of the whole community... The Third's was to broadcast only those things that had artistic value and serious purpose. 1979 ‘G. Black’ Night Run from Java i. 9 ‘I've my Second Mate's papers,’ ‘And you sail as that?’ ‘No. A Third.’ |
10. a. pl. Esp. in
phr. on thirds. An agreement whereby an owner of sheep has them grazed and cared for by another person who in return receives one third of the profits (see
quots.).
Austral. and
N.Z.| 1824 E. Curr Account Van Diemen's Land 78 It is a common practice for persons who have not sufficient land, or who cannot attend personally to their flocks, to give them in charge to another party, who receives one third of the increase for his trouble..and if the party taking them [sc. the flocks] for ‘the thirds’ be careful and trust-worthy, it is beneficial to both parties. 1852 G. C. Mundy Our Antipodes I. viii. 282 One may buy stock,..or take stock on the system of ‘thirds’, in which the working partner gets one third of the wool and of the increase, while the proprietary partner..follows some other profession. 1878 E. Jollie Reminisc. 18 [Watts]..agreed to take my sheep on ‘thirds’ for three years. On ‘thirds’ meant that he was to have one third of the wool each year and I had to have two thirds. 1930 L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs 1st Ser. viii. 206 For five years part of the run and sheep were let on thirds to a man named Thomas. |
b. third(s)-and-fourth(s): in cotton and corn farming, a system whereby the tenant contributes towards the cost of seed and fertilizer and the landowner receives a proportion of the crops (see
quots. 1964, 1967, 1976).
U.S.| 1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet i. i. 8 ‘What rent were you aiming to pay?’ ‘What do you rent for?’ ‘Third and fourths,’ Varner said. 1964 Amer. Folk Music Occasional i. 62 He could take advantage of the new system of farming rented land. ‘You call that third-and-fourths, now. I do my own furnishing and then the man that owned the land would get [e]very third bale of cotton, every fourth load of corn.’ 1967 G. W. Walton in Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xlvii. 29 Thirds and fourths,..a method of tenant farming whereby the following practices are common: the landowner furnishes the land and a house for the tenant; the tenant furnishes his own plow animals and tools and does all the work; the tenant then pays for one-fourth of the seed and fertilizer for growing the cotton and receives one-fourth of the cotton grown; the tenant pays for one-third of the seed and fertilizer for growing corn and receives one-third of the corn. 1976 C. S. Brown Gloss. Faulkner's South 198 Third and fourth,.{ddd}One who pays at this rate is a ‘share tenant’. .. He supplies his own equipment... Then he pays one third of the seed and fertilizer for cotton, and pays one fourth of his crop as rent. |
Add:
[B.] [I.] [6.] third age [
tr. F.
troisième âge], the period in life of active retirement; old age.
| 1972 Times 16 Mar. 13/7 We have devised a package deal for elderly people from the Continent... We are attempting to attract some Belgian old age pensioners. In Belgium it is called the *third age. 1980 Washington Post 4 Jan. b5/3 The seven senior citizens—or ‘Dancers of the Third Age’—continually delight audiences, wherever they perform. 1987 Sunday Tel. 29 Mar. 10/8 Pétain himself took a rather more sprightly view of life in what is now fashionably called the ‘third age’. |
▸
third rail n. U.S. colloq. (
orig. and chiefly
Polit.), an issue avoided because of its extremely controversial nature.
| [1903A. W. Small Let. in Social Forces 15 (1937) 309/2 Either I was having a bad attack of aphasia or the people at the Macmillan end had landed on some sort of third rail before they undertook to translate me.] [1924 Jrnl. Philos. 21 385 If grade-pupils can be thrown into the mad vortex of human affairs..they can be also thrown into the not quite so mad reign of natural law. The third rail is hardly any more fatal or more ubiquitous than the third degree.] 1982 Newsweek (Nexis) 24 May 24 Social security..is, in the words of one Democrat, the ‘*third rail of American politics’ and the one great hazard that Ronald Reagan and his Republicans had hoped to avoid touching in election year 1982. 1993 Atlantic Oct. 90/2 Unless we are willing to touch the third rail of American politics and rein in the growth in middle- and upper-class entitlements, our goal will elude us. 2000 Washington Post 24 Nov. e1 Should you purchase a computer that runs Microsoft Windows or Apple's Mac OS? This little question is the third rail of technology journalism. |
▸
third wave n. (
usu. with capital initials) a period of major economic, social, and cultural change (following an agrarian First Wave and industrial Second Wave), in which knowledge (
esp. as stored and disseminated by information technology) becomes the primary productive force.
| 1980 A. Toffler Third Wave i. 30 Today all the high-technology nations are reeling from the collision between the Third Wave and the obsolete encrusted economies and institutions of the Second. 1981 Cause/Effect Jan. 6 (title) As the Third Wave approaches higher education: Planning for the electronic institution. 1997 M. Collin & J. Godfrey Altered State v. 157 Dance partisans..considered themselves..as Third Wave techno-rebels. |
▸
third heaven n.compare post-classical Latin
tertium caelum (Vulgate), Hellenistic Greek
τρίτος οὐρανός (New Testament); chiefly with reference to 1 Corinthians 12:2 (compare
quot. c 1384) (this is a Christian concept and apparently not related to the seventh heaven of Judaism, although English seventh heaven
n. is used in a similar way) the abode of God (as opposed to the visible sky and the region of space beyond it); (
fig.) a place or state of supreme bliss (now
rare);
cf. seventh heaven
n.| c 1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) 2 Cor. xii. 2, I woot a man in Crist..rauyschid til to the *thridde heuene [L. ad tertium caelum]. c 1480 (a 1400) St. Paul 948 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 56 Paule..thocht þat he was rewyst ewine..to þe thred hewyne & syne in paradis. 1547 C. Parr Lament. Synner sig. Avv, Sainct Paule desired to knowe nothing but Christ crucified, after he had ben rapt into the thirde heauen. 1635 J. Reynolds Triumphs Gods Revenge (new ed.) iv. xvii. 390 Now likewise is Le Valley (in his conceit and minde) rapt up into the third Heaven of joy, in injoying his faire and sweet wife Martha. 1748 J. Wesley Let. 22 Mar. (1931) II. 140, I no more imagine that I have already attained, that I already love God with all my heart, soul, and strength, than that I am in the third heaven. 1808L. Stuart Let. 6 Feb. in D. Hewitt Scott on Himself (1981) 91, I have read Marmion twice to all this family; every one delighted but the young people in the third Heaven. 1899R. Tayler in R. J. Thomson Fiddler's Almanac (1985) 9/1 Sam's big brown whiskers rolled and tumbled in ecstacy on his fiddle, as he..reveled in the third heaven of ‘Arkansas Traveler’. 1989 Speculum 64 399 Paul ascended to the third heaven but returned to endure the assaults of the flesh. |
▪ II. third, v. [f. prec.] 1. trans. To divide (anything) into three equal parts; to reduce to one third of the number or bulk.
| 1455 Sc. Acts Jas. II (1814) II. 44/2 Þ{supt} na man gang away w{supt} na maner of gudis quhill it be thriddyt, and partyt befor þe chiftane. 1612 Two Noble K. i. ii, What man Thirds his owne worth? 1747 Franklin Lett. Wks. 1887 II. 97 That celerity doubled, tripled, &c., or halved, thirded, &c. 1874 Furnivall in 10th Rep. Committee E.E.T.S. 16 Such a course would have halved or thirded the number of our subscribers. |
† b. To buy or sell (college furniture, etc.) at two thirds of its last selling price: see
third n. 5.
Obs.| 1811 [R. Fenton] Tour Genealogy 157 The same..tale..is always worse told by him that tells it last; till like college furniture, too often thirded, it becomes too threadbare for credit. |
2. To speak in favour of (a motion, proposition, etc.) as third speaker; to support the seconder.
| 1656 Burton's Diary (1828) I. 90 It has been firsted, seconded, and thirded. 1707 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) VI. 233 A motion of the lord Wharton, seconded and thirded by the lords Somers and Hallifax. 1893 E. H. Baker in King's Business (New Haven, Conn.) 174 That resolution..was seconded by a theological professor... It was thirded by a pastor in the Episcopal Church. |
† b. To support or back up in the third place:
cf. second v. 2.
Obs.| 1602 Carew Cornwall 84 b, The next Captains should forthwith put themselves with their companies into their assigned sea coast townes, whom the adjoyning land-forces were appoynted to second and third. |
† 3. To hoe (turnips), clean (wheat), etc., the third time.
Obs.| 1683 J. Erskine Jrnl. 20 Sept. (1893) 17, I was winding and thirding some corn. 18.. Moor's Suffolk MS. (Halliw.), ‘Ar them there tahnups done woth?’ ‘No, we are thirding 'em.’ |