thrinter, a. and n. Now dial.
(ˈθrɪntə(r))
Also 6 trynter, thrwnter, thrwenter, 9 thrunter (Sc. fronter, frunter).
[In OE. þri-winter, three-winter-, three-year-; but the word may have been formed anew in 16th c., after twinter.]
a. adj. Of three winters; three years old: said of cattle and sheep. b. n. A sheep or bovine animal of three years or winters (now applied only to sheep).
| [c 1000 ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 117/20 Trimus, uel triennis, uel trimulus, ðri-winter.] 1536 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 419, 4 Trynters, 7 Twynters,..20 Dynmontes, 23 Hogges. 1570 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) I. 341 Fyue thrwnter stotts at v{supl} xiijs iiij{supd}—iij thrwenter whyes at iiij{supl}. 1577 in Hist. Soc. Lanc. & Chesh. LV–LVI. 27 Item. One other cowe... Item two thrinters. 1890 Cornh. Mag. Oct. 382 One of our thrunters, or three-winter-old ewes. a 1898 J. Shaw in R. Wallace Country Schoolmaster (1899) 339 ‘Twinters’ and ‘th[r]inters’, sic like names for sheep. |