T
(tiː)
the twentieth letter of the English and other modern alphabets, the nineteenth of the ancient Roman alphabet, corresponding in form to the Greek τ (tau), from the Phœnician (and ancient Semitic) {semtav1} {semtav2} {semtav3} {semtav4} (tau), in Phœnician, and originally also in Greek, the last letter of the alphabet. It represents the point-breath-stop consonant of Bell's ‘Visible Speech’, or surd dental mute, so called, but in English is gingival or alveolar rather than dental. Several varieties of a t-sound occur in different languages, according as the flow of the breath is stopped by bringing the tip or front of the tongue into contact with different points between the edge of the upper teeth and the roof of the palate. Thus, contact of the tip of the tongue with the teeth gives the true dental t, which is common in continental European languages, very distinct in Anglo-Irish, and heard in north-western English dialects before r, where it is often represented in dialect specimens by spelling thrue or t'hrue for true, and the like (though the consonant is not actually th or (θ)). The Indian languages, Aryan as well as Dravidian, distinguish two kinds of t, the dental, and the retracted or ‘cerebral’ (mūrdhanya), in Sanskrit त and ट, of which the latter is formed by contact of the retracted tip of the tongue with the roof of the palate. The English t is formed between these two extreme positions, the contact being with the back of the gum or the front margin of the palate; its sound is much closer to the cerebral than to the dental, and in the Tamil or Telugu representation of English words, the cerebral is regularly put for English t. In the Roman transliteration of Indian words it is usual to write t for the dental, and to distinguish the cerebral as ṭ, as is done in this dictionary. The Semitic languages also distinguish two t-sounds, one, the Hebrew tau (ת), Arabic ta (ﺕ) dental; the other, Hebrew teth (ט), Arabic ṭa (ﻁ), said to be formed by contact of the blade of the tongue with the palate; this also has been romanized as ṭ, though distinguished in Urdū from the cerebral ṭ.
In modern English, besides its proper sound as above described, t in the combinations -tion, -tious, -tial, -tia, -tian, -tience, -tient, after a vowel or any consonant except s, has the sound of sh (ʃ), in which the following i is absorbed, as in nation (ˈneɪʃən), factious (ˈfækʃəs), partial (ˈpɑːʃəl), militia (mɪˈlɪʃə), patience (ˈpeɪʃəns); but in -ia, -ian, i is sometimes more or less preserved, especially in proper names, as in inertia, Portia, Gratian, Dalmatian. In these combinations Latin (t) became (ts), usually written z, and then (s), written c, in French, as in L. grātia, It. grazia, F. grâce, L. nātiōnem, It. nazione, OF., Sp. nacion. In French and English spelling the Latin t was subsequently in most cases restored, e.g. nation; but the living sound was (s), and it is this s which combining with the following i (= y consonant) as (sj-), passed in English into (ʃ), in the same way as written c or s has done in gracious, Asia, emersion: see S the letter, par. 4. Strictly, therefore, what we have is not ti pronounced as (ʃ), but (ʃ) derived from ci, spelt ti after its Latin source. After s, the original sound of t has remained, as in bestial, Christian, Erastian.
A much more recent change, ‘as yet scarcely recognized by orthoepists’ (N.E.D., 1910), is the development in southern England of the sound ch (tʃ) from t followed by u with its diphthongal or name sound (juː, jʊ, jʊə), in such combinations as -tual, -tue, -tuous, and especially -ture, as in nature (ˈneɪtjʊə(r)), whence (ˈneɪtjə(r), ˈneɪtʃə(r)). In those English dialects in which u has not become (juː), the original t remains, as in ‘critter’ = creature, ‘pictur’ = picture. In rapid speech ti after s often passes similarly into (tʃ), as (ˈkwɛstʃən) for (ˈkwɛstjən).
T between s and syllabic l or n (en), as in bustle, castle, epistle, christen, fasten, hasten, is now usually mute; so between s and m in Christmas, and between f and syllabic n in often, soften.
th is a consonantal digraph representing two simple sounds (θ, ð), for which the Roman alphabet has no simple symbols, and is thus phonetically a distinct letter (or two letters), inserted between te- and ti-, where see its history and pronunciation.
I. 1. a. The letter and its sound. The plural is variously written t's, t's, ts (tiːz). See also tee n.1
| c 1000 [see B]. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. i. pr. i. 2 (Camb. MS.) Abouen þat lettre in the heyeste bordure a grekyssh t þat singnifieth the lyf contemplatyf. 1487 Act 4 Hen. VII, c. 13 Every Person so convicted..for any other Felony..to be marked with a T in the same Place of the Thumb. 1736 Ainsworth Lat.-Eng. Dict. s.v., With a design to hang T on her own gibbet, as Lucian jocosely says. 1847 Proc. Philol. Soc. III. 45 Thus the Aztecs of Mexico, though able to pronounce an l in the middle of a word, at the commencement find it necessary to prefix a t-sound to the liquid. 1859 Life E. Henderson vi. 353 Before the little inmate of the Linn could have known a T from a craw's tae. 1861 Dickens Gt. Expect. xvi, Everything producible that began with a T, from tar to toast. |
b. In phrase
to cross the t's: to make the horizontal stroke of
t (often omitted in hasty writing);
fig. to be minutely exact or particular in one's account; to make the meaning more distinct; to particularize and emphasize the points.
Cf. to dot the i'
s in I (the letter) 1.
| 1849 [see cross v. 7 a]. 1865 E. C. Clayton Cruel Fortune II. 220 To ascertain whether it was..properly spelt, and had all the i's dotted, and the t's crossed. 1882 Mrs. Houstoun Recomm. to Mercy xx, Please not to cross the t's. 1885 Dunckley in Manch. Exam. 15 June 6/2 To dot his i's and cross his t's and polish up his manuscript. |
c. Phr.
to a T (also
to a tee): exactly, properly, to a nicety.
[The original sense of T here has not been ascertained. Suggestions that it was the
tee at Curling, or at Golf, or a T square, appear on investigation to be untenable; it has also been suggested that it referred to the proper completion of a
t by crossing it (see b); or that it was the initial of a word; in reference to this it is notable that
to a tittle (
i.e. to a prick, dot, jot) was in use nearly a century before ‘to a T’, and in exactly the same constructions: see
tittle.]
| 1693 Humours Town 102 All the under Villages and Towns-men come to him for Redress; which he does to a T. 1700 Labour in Vain viii. in Harl. Misc. (1810) X. 473 Harry cajoled my inquirer, and fitted his humour to a t―. 1771 J. Giles Poems 155 I'll tell you where You may be suited to a tee. 1815 Zeluca I. 385, I knew my man to a T. 1828 Life Planter Jamaica 161, I understand the practice to a tee. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxii. 66 The yards were squared ‘to a T’ by lifts and braces. 1856 Mrs. Stowe Dred ii, All these old-fashioned goings on would suit you to a T. 1873 K. H. Digby Last Year's Leaves viii. 302 Then should you scorn such feasts, like me, We've what will suit you to a tee. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 58 Simon Dedalus takes him off to a tee with his eyes screwed up. 1966 Listener 29 Sept. 480/1 John Hollis had Walter off to a tee. 1973 Brit. Printer May 62/3 Edwin Snell of Yeovil has the direct mail touch to a tee. |
2. a. The shape of the letter; an object having the shape
T. See also
tee n.1,
tau. Also short for
T beard,
T iron,
T rail: see 3.
| a 1619, a 1654 [see 3 b]. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 262 Slit the Bark or Rind about an Inch long, in form of a T. 1733 Tull Horse-Hoeing Husb. xxii. 330 Made..with a Head like a T. 1875 T. Seaton Fret-Cutting 69 Then see whereabouts to put them through the upright part or T of the bracket. 1891 Daily News 27 Apr. 2/5 Plate iron, angles, T's, and bars for railway waggon building are in large request. 1891 Scott. Leader 21 Sept. 3 Inquiries for old material are reviving, rails being chiefly in demand. Some holders are now asking 21 dols. for old T's. 1893 F. Adams New Egypt 237 The tongue of this inverted T, i.e., the entrenchments, had been carried out some two miles. |
b. Electr. A network of three impedances that can be represented diagrammatically as a T in which the stem and each arm is an impedance. Freq.
attrib.; so
T-connected adj.| 1909 Bedell & Pierce Direct & A.C. Testing vii. 248 Transforming from a 2-phase primary circuit to two sets of T-connected secondaries. Ibid. 249 The line voltage, thus obtained by the T-connection, is accordingly the same as would be obtained by three 3-phase generator coils..in delta. 1934, etc. [see lattice n. 2 d]. 1947 R. Lee Electronic Transformers & Circuits vi. 150 In the ‘low pass’ filter T-section of Fig. 115, the inductance arms shown as L/2 and the capacitance C are made with losses as low as possible. 1973 J. R. Neuenswander Mod. Power Systems iii. 32 For a line of medium length, a better approximation is arrived at through either the π or the T connection. 1975 D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. xiii. 30 While many null network configurations are useful (including the bridged-T and twin-T), the Wien bridge design predominates. |
c. Naut. In
phr. to cross the T: of a fleet or ship, to cross ahead of another (enemy) fleet's or ship's line of advance approximately at right angles, thus securing tactical advantages.
| 1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin xvii. 323 Sir David Beatty..altered course to the east and crossed the enemy's T,..inflicting terrible damage with his heavy fire. 1953 Hist. Today Feb. 114/1 The Japanese main force was able to steam across the head of the Russian line... This manoeuvre, known as ‘crossing the T’, has been the dream of all admirals once steam tactics were introduced. 1968 D. Thomas Battle of Java Sea x. 143 The destroyer Oshio..had crossed the Dutch cruisers' T and exchanged a rapid but ineffectual fire with Java. 1976 Oxf. Compan. Ships & Sea 213/2 The fleet ‘crossing the T’ has a considerable gunnery advantage. |
3. a. attrib. (sometimes hyphened): Shaped like the letter
T; having a cross piece at the top; as
T bandage,
T bar,
T chain,
T end,
T fish,
T handle,
T head,
T hinge,
T iron,
T joint,
T key,
T pattern,
T piece,
T spot,
T tap,
T tube,
T wharf. Also comb., as
T-formed,
T-headed,
T-shaped adjs. See also
tee n.1, tee-piece, etc.
| 1783 Bentley in Med. Commun. (1784) I. 257 The canula..was left in the puncture, secured with a double *T bandage. 1885 W. H. Coleman Hist. Sketch Bk. New Orleans xviii. 187 The Chevalier appeared in the streets wearing what the surgeons call a T bandage about his face and jaw. |
| 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 84 Secured by a *T chain. |
| 1841 Penny Cycl. XX. 465/2 The *T-formed or arrow-shaped bone [of the Saurians]. |
| 1778 W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 20 Apr. an. 1775, A light beam of seven feet long, drawn by a *T handle, by one man, walking backwards. |
| a 1910 N.E.D., *T head. 1913 W. E. Dommett Motor Car Mech. 42 The arrangement shown at E is the most extensively used, the cylinder being said to have a T-head. 1969 Jane's Freight Containers 1968–69 179/3 A new Oil Jetty running 217 m..out into Harwich Harbour.., and having a minimum depth of 33 ft alongside the T-head. |
| 1844 Stephens Bk. Farm III. 849 They are always attached..by a *T headed nail and spike. |
| 1844 Ibid. I. 198 The inside doors should be hung with *T hinges, 18 inches long. |
| 1838 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 126/1 The roof..is further supported and braced by strutts of *T iron and suspension rods. |
| 1889 Cent. Dict., *T-joint. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 16 Mar. 8/1 The main cable..is always connected with the consumer's house by means of a T-joint, which is enclosed in a box filled with bitumen. |
| 1895 Parkes Health 54 Lead *T pieces, as they are called [in water-pipes] must be used. |
| 1860 Biog. & Crit. fr. ‘The Times’ 235 *T-shaped traps for the wheatear. |
| 1896 Farrier's Price List, *T taps and other tools. |
| 1881 Tyndall Floating Matter of Air iii. xviii. 188 One end..of a glass *T-tube was connected with an air-pump. |
b. Special Combs. (sometimes hyphened).
T account U.S. Book-keeping, a standard form of ledger account (see
quot. 1976), or a simplified version of this;
T-bar, a metal bar with a T-shaped cross-section; a T-shaped fastening on a shoe (
cf. T-strap below);
spec. a type of ski-lift consisting of a series of T-shaped bars whereby skiers are towed uphill;
† T beard, a beard worn in the 17th c., grown or cut in the form of a T;
T-bone steak orig. U.S., a beef-steak cut from the sirloin and containing a T-shaped bone; also
ellipt. as
T-bone;
T branch, in piping, a right-angled joint of a small pipe to a main; a T joint;
T cart, an open phaeton, so called from its groundplan resembling the letter T;
T cloth, a plain cotton cloth exported to India, China, Africa, etc., so called from the large letter T stamped on it;
T-formation U.S. Football, a T-shaped offensive formation of players (see
quot. 1978);
T-junction, a T-shaped intersection (of pipes, etc.);
spec. a T-shaped road junction;
† T-light Theatr., a type of gas lighting-device utilizing a pipe in the shape of a letter T (
obs.);
T rail, a railway metal or rail having a T section;
T square, a square of the form of a
T or rather ⊦ (with a long stem), used by mechanics and draughtsmen for drawing lines parallel, or at right angles, to each other (see also
tee n.1);
T-strap, a T-shaped instep strap on a shoe;
freq. attrib.; also
absol., a shoe with such a strap;
cf. T-bar above;
t-totum: see
teetotum. See also
T-shirt.
| 1936 Owens & Kennedy Accounting v. 49 Sometimes ‘skeleton’ or ‘*T’ accounts are used instead of the regular accounts. 1941 L. O. Foster Introd. Accounting x. 181 T accounts are accounts without rulings and are used in classroom discussions because of the simplicity of their structure. 1976 D. W. Moffat Econ. Dict. 270/1 T account. In double-entry book-keeping, each account has the name of the account on a horizontal across the top, and then a vertical line separates the debit entries from the credit entries. The lines form a T. |
| 1889 Cent. Dict., *T-bar. 1940 [see chair-lift s.v. lift n.2 10 b]. 1956 [see section n. 2 p]. 1964 Woman 18 Jan. 13 Today's chair-lifts and T-bars mean you'll be sitting as much as ski-ing. 1966 A. W. Lewis Gloss. Woodworking Terms 78 (caption) T-bar sach cramp. 1972 Daily Tel. 24 Jan. 11/7 The little girl's T-bar beach-shoe. 1979 United States 1980/81 (Penguin Travel Guides) 648 Excellent skiing facilities including a chair lift,..T-bar, beginners' lift, and various snack bars. |
| a 1619 Fletcher, etc. Q. Corinth iv. i, Strokes his beard, Which now he puts i' th' posture of a T, The Roman T, your *T beard is the fashion. [a 1654 J. Taylor (Water P.) Superb. Flagellum, [Beards] Some with the hammer-cut, or Roman T.] |
| 1916 Dialect Notes IV. 270 T-steak or *T-bone-steak,..so called from the shape of the bone. 1923 N. Anderson Hobo i. iii. 34 These bills of fare..displayed..T-Bone Steak. 1934 E. Newhouse You can't sleep Here xii. 144 When it's a toss-up between buzzards' gizzards and a t-bone.., me for the t-bone. 1959 Times 27 Apr. 7/4 Fillet and T-bone steaks were the order of the hour. 1979 R. Rendell Make Death love Me xi. 98 He got Marty to fetch in three great hunks of T-bone because Joyce said she liked steak. |
| 1873 R. Broughton Nancy II. 24 The butler took the housekeeper a driving-tour in my *T-cart, and threw down one of my best horses. 1882 Daily News 30 May 3/1 Stanhope phaetons (generally called by the absurd name of T cart). 1883 F. M. Crawford Dr. Claudius xvi, A very gorgeous conveyance, called in America a T-cart, and resembling a mail phaeton in build. |
| 1865 Manch. Guard. 2 Mar., *T cloths, 9d. and long-cloths, 6d. to 1s. per piece. 1880 Plain Hints Needlework 72 ‘T cloths’ are lengths of 20 yards of calico, specially used as barter with native tribes in Africa. |
| 1930 R. C. Zuppke Coaching Football vii. 208 The ‘*T’ formation..is at its core a strong formation. 1942 L. O. Waldorf How to play Football ix. 112 In 1940, Stanford University used the T formation with great success. 1978 G. Wright Illustr. Handbk. Sporting Terms 85/3 T-formation, one of the basic offensive formations with the quarterback behind the center and the other three backs behind in a row parallel to the line of scrimmage. |
| 1954 Gloss. Highway Engin. Terms (B.S.I.) 56 *T junction, a junction shaped like a T. 1956 Nature 24 Mar. 561/1 The study of the stresses in the T-junction of a branched pipe. 1958 Listener 20 Nov. 835/3 The first T-junction that comes along without a signpost of any kind. 1969 E. H. Pinto Treen 380/2 The method of making a right-angle turn, or a T junction, is shown in Plate 408, where the tapered short section is driven into a cone socket in the side of the longer length of elm pipe. 1982 S. Spender China Diary 104 He jumped out of the car..and walked..till he came to a T-junction where the [traffic] blockage seemed to originate. |
| 1898 A. W. Pinero Trelawny of ‘Wells’ iv. 171 Just below the footlights is a *T-light, burning gas. 1911 [see du théâtre]. 1933 J. Martin-Harvey Autobiogr. iv. 43 The gloomy underground stage unlit by anything but the ‘T’ light on which a single jet of gas literally made darkness visible. |
| 1837 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 39/2 The pattern..is by American engineers called the inverted *T rail. 18.. Whitman To Working Men vi, The strong, clean-shaped T-rail for railroads. |
| [1701 Moxon Math. Instr. 19 Tee, a double Square in the form of a T.] 1785 Peacock in Phil. Trans. LXXV. 369 A common *T square..will answer most purposes. 1861 Smiles Engineers II. 76 His trace, his T square, his augers, his gouges, and his engraving tools. |
| 1963 Times 1 Feb. 14/5 Some shoes had..slender *T-straps. 1963 Harper's Bazaar Apr. 75 The T-strap sandal shown here in patent leather. 1969 Sears Catal. Spring/Summer 7 Dashing T-strap with sparkling patent vinyl upper. 1974 Country Life 21 Mar. 687/2 A brogued court with T-strap. 1978 Detroit Free Press 5 Mar. a19 (Advt.), Popular T-strap slings with open or closed backs and espadrilles. |
II. 4. Used like the other letters of the alphabet to denote serial order: applied
e.g. to the twentieth (or more usually the nineteenth) of any series, to the nineteenth sheet of a book, etc. (
b)
T-model (Ford) = Model T s.v. model n. 7 e.
| 1932 [see model n. 7 e]. 1942 Z. N. Hurston in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 28/1 Way after a while a T-model Ford came along full of Negroes. 1962 John o' London's 11 Jan. 43/3 Driving a T-model Ford over the roof-tops. |
5. A mediæval symbol for the numeral 160, and with a stroke over it (T̄) for 160,000.
6. a. Abbreviations: for various proper names, as Thomas, Timothy, Titus, Theresa, etc.;
T Mus., tasto, tempo, tenor, tutti;
T officially stamped on a letter,
taxed,
i.e. postage to be paid;
T (
Physics)
= tera-;
T (
Physics)
= tesla;
T in a ship's log-book, thunder;
T Math., time, terms, etc.;
T (
Physics and
Chem.)
= tritium;
t (
Physics), top or truth, a quark flavour;
TA (
U.S.), teaching assistant;
T.A., Territorial Army (see also note
s.v. TAVR below);
T.A. (
Psychol.), transactional analysis;
T.A.B. (
Austral. and
N.Z.), Totalizator Agency Board;
T.A.B. (
Med.), a vaccine against typhoid, paratyphoid A, and paratyphoid B;
usu. attrib.;
T. & A., T and A (
U.S.), tonsils and adenoids; tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy;
t. and g.,
t. & g., (
Woodworking), tongued and grooved;
TAT (
Psychol.), thematic apperception test;
TAVR, Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve (the name given to the restructured Territorial Army in 1967, but replaced by the name ‘Territorial Army’ in 1979);
T.B., torpedo-boat;
T.B., Treasury Bill (
cf. T-Bill, sense 7 below);
T.B.,
t.b., tuberculosis;
T.B.-tested adj., (of an animal) tested to establish the absence of tuberculosis; also (
U.S. slang), a confidence trickster (see
quot. 1930);
T.B.D.,
t.b.d., torpedo boat destroyer;
TBS,
talk
between
ships, a short-wave radio apparatus used for verbal communication between ships at sea;
tbs.,
tbsp., tablespoon(ful);
TCA, trichloroacetic acid (a herbicide);
TCB (
U.S. Black slang), (to) take care of business;
T.C.D., Trinity College, Dublin;
TCDD = tetrachlorodibenzodioxin s.v. tetra- 2 a;
TCNQ (
Chem.) [
f. tetra- + CN, chemical formula of the cyano group +
quinone], 7,7,8,8-tetracyano-
p-quinodimethane, an organic compound forming salts of unusually low resistivity;
T.C.P., the proprietary name of a disinfectant;
TCP (
Physics), time (reversal), charge (conjugation), and parity (conservation);
T.D. [
Ir. Teachta{iacu} Dála], a member of Dáil {Eacu}ireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament;
T.D., Territorial Decoration (in the Territorial Army);
TD (
U.S. and
Canad. Football), a touchdown;
T.D.C., Temporary Detective Constable;
TDC (
Mech.), top dead centre;
TDE [
f. two numeral a. +
dichlor
ethane], an organochlorine insecticide (see
quot. 1946) formerly used on fruit and vegetables;
T.D.R., Treasury Deposit Receipt;
t.d.s. (
Med.) [L.
ter die sumendus], to be taken three times a day;
TEE, Trans Europ (also Europe, European) Express (train);
TEFL,
Tefl (
tɛf(ə)l), Teaching of English as a Foreign Language;
TESL (
tɛs(ə)l), Teaching of English as a Second Language;
TESOL (
ˈtɛsəl), Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages;
TeV, tera-electron volt;
T.G., temporary gentleman (see
temporary a. 1 d);
T.G., thank God (
cf. D.G. s.v. D III. 3);
TG (
Linguistics), transformational-generative (grammar) (see
transformational a.);
TGV [F.
train à grande vitesse], a type of high-speed French passenger train;
T.G.W.U., Transport and General Workers' Union;
THC, tetrahydrocannabinol;
t.i.d. (
Med.) [L.
ter in die], three times a day;
T.I.G.,
Tig (
Engin.), tungsten inert gas (with reference to welding with a tungsten electrode in an atmosphere of an inert gas);
TIR [F.
transport international routier], international road transport (with reference to an international customs agreement: see
quot. 1969);
TKO,
t.k.o., (chiefly
N. Amer.), in Boxing, a technical knock-out; also
fig. and as
v. trans.;
TL, thermoluminescent (dating technique); also
TL-dating;
TLC (
colloq.), tender loving care;
TLC,
t.l.c. (
Chem.), thin-layer chromatography;
TLR (
Photogr.), twin-lens reflex (camera);
T.L.S., The Times Literary Supplement;
TM, trade mark;
TM, transcendental meditation;
T.M., trench mortar (
cf. toc emma);
TMV, tobacco mosaic virus;
T.N.T. = trinitrotoluene;
T.O., turn over (
cf. P.T.O. = ‘please turn over’
s.v. P II);
TOEFL, Test(ing) of English as a Foreign Language;
TOFC (
orig. U.S.), trailer on flatcar (with reference to a type of freight container);
TOW,
tube-launched,
optically tracked,
wire-guided (missile);
T.P.R. (
Med.), temperature, pulse, and respiration;
TR (
Electronics), transmit-receive;
usu. attrib.;
TRF,
TRH (
Biochem.)
= thyrotropin-releasing factor or
hormone s.v. thyro- 2;
tRNA (
Biochem.), transfer RNA; also
† T-RNA;
T.S. (
U.S. Forces' slang), tough shit (also situation, stuff); also used
attrib. to designate a (real or imaginary) card, etc., allowing the recipient an interview to discuss his grievances with the chaplain;
TS (
pl. TSS), typescript;
TSA, Training Services Agency;
TSH (
Biochem.), thyroid-stimulating hormone (
cf. thyroid n. 2 b);
tsp., teaspoon(ful);
TSS, twin-screw steamer;
TSS (see
TS = typescript above);
T.T.,
t.t., teetotal, a teetotaller;
T.T. (
Comm.), telegraphic transfer;
T.T., Tourist Trophy (
freq. used
ellipt. for
Tourist Trophy Race);
T.T. = tuberculin-tested ppl. adj. s.v. tuberculin b; also
transf.;
T.T.F.N. (
colloq.), ‘ta-ta for now’ (a catch-phrase popularized by the 1940s BBC radio programme
Itma);
T.T.L. (
Photogr.), through-the-lens (metering);
TTL (
Electronics)
= transistor-transistor logic s.v. transistor n. 3 b;
TV (
colloq.,
orig. and chiefly
N. Amer.), a transvestite;
T.V.A. [
Fr.,
taxe à la valeur ajoutée]
= V.A.T.;
T.V.A. (
U.S.), Tennessee Valley Authority;
TVP, textured vegetable protein (proprietary name); see
textured a.;
TWA (
U.S.), Trans World Airlines (formerly, until 1950, Transcontinental and Western Air). See also
TAM,
TANU,
Tass3,
TEWT,
TIM,
TOPS, C.,
TV.
| 1894 Westm. Gaz. 12 Oct. 3/2 ‘England’ stamps these cards with a ‘*T’, an initial which, with St. Martin's-le-Grandiose conciseness stands for ‘taxed’. |
| 1951 Symbols, Signs & Abbreviations (R. Soc.) 15 Tera (× 1012) *T. 1978 Guardian Weekly 27 Aug. 13/3 Sweden's energy requirements..—125 Twh in 1985. |
| 1964 Internat. System (SI) Units (B.S.I.) 8 The tesla (symbol *T) is the name given to this unit in Continental literature. 1973 Physics Bull. Sept. 555/3 He used pulsed magnetic fields as high as 30 T. |
| 1743 Emerson Fluxions 15, *t = Number of Terms in V..Continu'd to t Terms. |
| 1871 Tait & Steele Dynamics of Particle (ed. 3) iii. §80 Let P be the position of the particle at any time *t. Ibid. §86 If T be the time of descent down AC. |
| 1978 Nature 2 Feb. 407/1 This new quark pair is labelled *t and b for ‘top’ and ‘bottom’. Ibid. 407/2 The prudish may care to note that t and b are said to stand for truth and beauty, rather than top and bottom, by some physicists. 1984 Daily Tel. 5 July 36/4 Discovery of a sub-atomic particle labelled the ‘T-top’ quark has been announced by scientists at Cern. |
| 1948 Glasstone Textbk. Physical Chem. (ed. 2) ii. 172 The 3H isotope, called tritium, symbol *T, has also been obtained by the bombardment of nitrogen by neutrons. 1973 Nature 3 Aug. 257/1 The square-root law of mass-dependence does not apply to isotopic variants HDO and HTO. |
| 1724 Short Explic. For. Wds. in Mus. Bks., The Letter *T. is often used as an Abbreviation of the Word Tutti. |
| 1969 C. Davidson in Cockburn & Blackburn Student Power 357 These considerations make the organization of a radical trade union of *TAs a crucial part of any strategy for change. 1980 Berkeley Graduate Oct. 3/4 Matthew Soyster, a Comparative Literature graduate student, is currently a TA in the Rhetoric Department. |
| 1924 Regulations for Territorial Army i. iii. 33 An officer appointed to command a brigade..will..be granted such rank in the *T.A. temporarily. Ibid. iv. 53 The senior T.A. officer in the locality. 1939 W. S. Churchill Let. 30 Aug. in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1976) V. liii. 1106 Would it not be helpful to call up the reserves and mobilize the TA? 1980 Whitaker's Almanack 1981 473/2 The Territorial Army (TA) is designed to provide a reserve of highly trained and well equipped units and individuals. |
| 1972 N.Y. Times Mag. 19 Nov. 42 Initial capitals are common in the vocabulary of Transactional Analysis, or *T.A. 1976 S. Wales Echo 25 Nov. 16/7 In the group therapy of TA members can see a wider range of ego states than they could on their own, and the collective framework is thought to aid analysis and change. |
| 1957 Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 19 Nov. 16/1 If people want things like the *T.A.B., alcohol and cigarettes. 1969 Sydney Morning Herald 24 May 27/1 (heading) The Moorebank Handicap, second leg of the TAB double. 1977 Herald (Melbourne) 17 Jan. 6/8 A spokesman for the TAB head office. |
| 1929 Lancet 9 Feb. 288/1 These *T.A.B. vaccine injections..caused remission in the course of general paralysis. 1970 Guardian 24 Jan. 17/3 The Department of Health advises all travellers abroad to take the precaution of a TAB vaccination. 1981 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 18 Apr. 1313/1 We all lined up, hand on hip, to receive the dreaded TAB. |
| 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §532/1 *T.&A., tonsils and adenoids. 1960 in Arch. Otolaryngology Aug. 183/1 Tonsilloadenoidectomy (T and A) is often classified as minor surgery. Ibid. 186/1 Immediate hemorrhage in the first 24 hours post T and A continued to be approximately 3%–4%. 1976 Amer. Speech 1973 XLVIII. 204 Relatively simple operations like a T and A..are considered routine procedures on the hospital's OR (operating room) schedule. |
| 1948 Archit. Rev. CIII. 133 Exterior walls are of two by four studs, four by four posts, faced externally with wood sheathing and *t. and g. vertical boarding. 1949 Gloss. Terms Timber (B.S.I.) 41 t. & g., tongued and grooved. |
| 1946 Jrnl. Presonality XV. 70 The Thematic Apperception Test (*TAT)..is a projective device which purports to reveal the basic personality characteristics of individuals. 1952 [see global a. 2]. 1964 M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. iv. 49 There are various ways of scoring TAT stories for aggressiveness. 1972 Jrnl. Social Psychol. LXXXVIII. 191 The standard Murray TATs..were not considered appropriate. |
| 1967 Army Q. XCIV. 36 *T.A.V.R. I and II will be adequately equipped with modern weapons and equipment. 1977 R.A.F. News 22 June–5 July 18 (caption) The Wapinschaw..attracts entries from many regular and TAVR units in the North of Scotland. |
| 1897, etc. *T.B. = torpedo boat [implied at T.B.D. below]. a 1912 W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 187/1 T.B.,..torpedo boat. 1925 R. H. Bacon Naval Scrap-bk. x. 144 In the 1895 manœuvres, when I was a Lieutenant of just under twelve years' seniority, I was appointed in command of No. 94 T.B. 1938, etc. [see M.T.B. s.v. M 5 a]. 1977 Preston & Brown tr. Jentschura's Warships Imperial Jap. Navy, 1869–1945 ix. 124 TBs. 1–4 were modelled by Sir Edward Reed on the RN 100ft type. They were assembled in Japan. |
| 1936 Financial Times 20 Nov. 1/1, 3 months *T.B.—*{pstlg}0 10 6·24 pc. 1971 Financial Mail (Johannesburg) 26 Feb. 661/1 National has about R25m of TBs on its book. |
| 1912 D. Lowrie My Life in Prison iv. 33 He's doin' 35 years an' has the *T.B. 1921 A. Mason Flying Bo'sun ii. 19 Their mother died two years ago... The doctor said it was T.B. 1930 J. Lait Big House i. 7 A confidence (or ‘con’) man is a ‘T.B.’, (‘con’ is short and slang for consumption, and ‘T.B.’ is ditto for tuberculosis). 1932 U. Sinclair Candid Reminiscences x. 88 The old captain was ill of TB. 1942 C. Himes Black on Black (1973) 176 Men..of all stages of deterioration—drifters and hopheads and tb's and beggars and bums and bindle-stiffs and big sisters. 1951 J. Cannan And all I Learned x. 180 We've our own cows, T.B. tested and so beautifully kept. 1957 S. Smith Coll. Poems (1975) 336, I lay with my young bride in my arms, A girl with t.b. 1974 M. Butterworth Man in Sopwith Camel ii. 26 They wouldn't take me 'cos I'd had a touch of TB. |
| 1897 Kipling Let. Aug. in C. Carrington Rudyard Kipling (1955) xi. 268 Ref: *t.b.d. trials. My attention is at present taken up by one small craft recently lauched from my own works. 1902 ― Traffics & Discov. (1904) 182 The chief engineer o' the Djinn, 31-knot T.B.D. 1919 C. P. Thompson Cocktails 249, I passed an enjoyable day giving a T.B.D. lieutenant a headache. 1978 H. Wouk War & Remembrance xx. 200 The TBD is a lot slower. |
| 1944 *TBS [see gravelly a. 5]. 1946 Sat. Even. Post 26 Oct. 66/3 The astounded admiral grabbed the TBS radio and shouted. 1978 H. Wouk War & Remembrance xv. 153 Rear Admiral Spruance, issuing order after order on the TBS, finally regained a semblance of control. |
| 1950 Good Housek. Picture Cookery 170/2 Coffee Glacé Icing. 8 oz. icing sugar 2 *tbsps. water. Coffee essence to taste. 1974 J. Paxton Everyman's Dict. Abbrev. 338/1 tbs., tbsp., tablespoon; tablespoonful. 1977 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Apr. 391/2, I only wish my dog liked his food sprinkled with the recommended 2 tbs of the product every day. |
| 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 22 Mar. 136/3 After *T.C.A. treatment 8 weeks should elapse before planting potatoes. 1971 Arable Farmer Feb. 15/2 A pre-planting application of TCA to peas may reduce the waxiness of the crop foliage, leading to unexpected damage from dinoseb applied subsequently. |
| 1969 S. E. Henderson in Cook & Henderson Militant Black Writer 78 These poems were not intended for white readers and white audiences..their purpose was direct address to the black community, to get us together to *TCB. 1973 New Times 2 Nov. 41 Where he is always to be found TCB'ing (taking care of business, an old ghetto phrase which originally meant to copulate). |
| 1831 M. C. Taylor Let. 22 June in J. J. Auchmuty Sir T. Wyse (1939) ix. 134 The Scholars of *T.C.D. do not afford a Protestant, a learned or an independent constituency. 1916 H. Plunkett Jrnl. 29 Apr. in M. Digby Plunkett (1949) ix. 212 The firing from the other side of the T.C.D. guards was so fierce that we had to turn back. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake 424 Go o'er the sea, haythen, from me and leave your libber to TCD. 1979 J. Sheehan in J. J. Lee Ireland 1945–70 67 A UCD/TCD merger or co-ordination of some sort. |
| 1971 New Yorker 14 Aug. 57 The only real question concerning the safety of 2,4,5-T has to do with the *TCDD dioxin with which it is contaminated. 1981 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 199/2 It is impossible to substantiate the charge that TCDD has led to an increase in the number of malformed children in Vietnam. |
| 1960 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. LXXXII. 6408/1, 7,7,8,8-Tetracyanoquinodimethane (*TCNQ) has been synthesized and found to yield a series of stable anion-radical derivatives. 1979 Sci. Amer. Oct. 48/2 Many salts in which TCNQ is combined with other atoms or molecules form linear-chain solids. |
| 1934 Trade Marks Jrnl. 22 Aug. 1084/1 *T.C.P...Antiseptic and germicide solutions (being disinfectants). British Alkaloids Limited, 104, Winchester House, Old Broad Street, London, E.C.2; manufacturing chemists. 1947 J. Lees-Milne Diary 22 Jan. (1983) 128 Cut my mole shaving this morning and thought it would never stop bleeding. T.C.P. finally staunched it. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ix. 171 Earnestly applying T.C.P...in the privacy of their bedrooms. 1981 G. Kaye Day after Yesterday ii. 22 You cried when you only scraped your knee..a little scrape and a bit of TCP. |
| 1957 Physical Rev. CVI. 385/1 According to a general theorem, invariance with respect to the product *TCP follows for a wide class of field theories from invariance with respect to the proper Lorentz group alone. 1974 Frauenfelder & Henley Subatomic Physics ix. 223 When violation of parity became a possibility the TCP theorem suddenly acquired more meaning. 1979 J. C. Polkinghorne Particle Play iii. 47 We do not know how to write down any theories which are not invariant under TCP. |
| 1947 S. Malone Notes on Procedure in Houses of Oireachtas p. vii, Members of Da{iacu}l Eirann (Teachtai Dála)—referred to as *T.D.'s or Deputies. 1959 B. Chubb in D. E. Butler et al. Elections Abroad iii. 187 TD—Teachta Dála; the Irish equivalent of Member of Parliament. TDs are addressed as ‘Deputy’. 1979 M. Manning in J. J. Lee Ireland 1945–70 51 Its TDs tended to act more as independents than as members of a political party. |
| 1924 Regulations for Territorial Army i. x. 145 The letters ‘*T.D.’ will be inserted in the Army List after the name of the officer on whom the decoration is conferred. 1981 Whitaker's Almanack 1982 248 Alport, Cuthbert James McCall Alport, p.c., t.d. |
| 1953 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang (1954) §692/2 Touchdown,..*TD, touch. 1969 Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard 3 Dec. 2d/1 Nyseth scored three TDs en route to 137 yards. 1970 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 25 Sept. 33/3 Another fumble set up Riverdale's second TD when Bob Nichols recovered the ball in Lions' end zone. 1977 Detroit Free Press 11 Dec. 10–d/4 TD passes, home runs, goals or point averages. |
| 1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard ii. 45 *TDC Sneed and DC Lambert to watch on Sloane Square to investigate shoplifting complaint. 1978 B. Norman To nick Good Body ii. 9 A temporary detective constable..had just brought in the Guv'nor's tea... The Guv'nor waved away the T.D.C. |
| 1938 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLII. 888 *T.D.C. or any other reference marks are marked by the discharge flash of a thyratron circuit, controlled by suitable contacts on the engine crankshaft. 1976 New Motorcycling Monthly Oct. 34/2 With piston at TDC, pull barrel up mounting studs. |
| 1946 Nature 6 July 22/1 ‘D.D.D.’ or ‘*T.D.E.’ The compound 2.2-bis(p-chlorphenyl)1,1-dichlorethane..has been shown to be about as toxic as D.D.T. to mosquito larvæ in laboratory tests. 1970 New Scientist 1 Jan. 16/1 Much of this case also applies..to the other ‘hard’ organochlorine insecticides: aldrin,..BHC and TDE (Rhothane). |
| 1948 G. Crowther Outl. Money (ed. 2) ii. 37 There are four main types of bank assets, which are..bills.., Treasury Deposit Receipts (usually known as *TDRs), investments and loans. 1965 J. L. Hanson Dict. Econ. & Commerce 383/1 By 1945 T.D.R.s had reached a total of over {pstlg}1,800 million. |
| 1899 P. G. Lewis Nursing ii. 18 Medicines are ordered to be taken either statim (immediately), or *t.d.s. = ter die sumenda (to be taken three times a day). 1919 Jrnl. R. Naval Med. Service v. 93 He was given quinine 15 gr. t.d.s. 1961 Lancet 29 July 238/1 The response of our patients to a course of 20 electroshock treatments or to chlorpromazine 100–400 mg. t.d.s. |
| 1963 Times 23 May 13/7 *TEE trains now link 90 European cities. 1967 R. Sawkins Snow in Paradise iii. 29 The TEE is just about as quick as the plane. 1977 J. Paxton Dict. Europ. Econ. Community 246 Trans-Europ-Express (T.E.E.). Trans-Europ-Expresses connect major cities in nine European countries by a network of very fast and comfortable trains for which frontier formalities have been reduced to a minimum. |
| 1963 Language Learning (Univ. of Michigan) XIII. 225 (heading) Reflections on Preparation for *TEFL. 1968 Language XLIV. 206 Any gathering of TEFL leaders today will be sure to include a large number who received their initial experience at Michigan. 1977 P. Strevens New Orientations Teaching of English v. 56 The American terms TEFL, TESL, TESOL, TESOLD have no precise counterparts in British usage. 1981 Guardian 14 Apr. 21/4 (Advt.), Applications are invited from candidates who have experience in..Tefl. |
| 1967 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 16 Sept. 83 Though a major curriculum emphasis is developing fluency in the English language using the linguistic approach of *TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), the knowledge of Navaho is still essential to many jobs on the reservation. 1980 Verbatim Spring 20/1 A dictionary or international English might have remembered TESL and TEFL ‘teaching of English as a Second (or Foreign) Language’, however. |
| 1969 Language XLV. 171 The two halves of the collection, articles on the description of English and articles on *TESOL, reflect the sad dichotomy between descriptive linguists and language-teaching methodologists the world over. |
| 1956 Proc. CERN Symposium I. 64/2 These machines would have equivalent energies of 1340 Gev, or 1·3 *Tev. 1980 Sci. Amer. Jan. 32/3 Completion of the full lower ring is now expected toward the end of 1981, and protons at 1 TeV should be delivered to the experimental areas in 1982. |
| 1916 N. Mitchison Jrnl. in All Change Here (1975) xv. 147 Last night about half a dozen [officers] came into the salon and started a conversation... They were awful *TGs mostly... Here am I, sitting..in the middle of the stuffy salon of a third-rate French hotel, being as charming as I can to an audience of TGs, all to give them the memory of a pleasant evening to take back to the trenches at Givenchy. |
| 1934 J. Rhys Voyage in Dark i. i. 17 ‘Only three more weeks of this damned tour, *T.G.,’ Maudie said. ‘It's no life.’ 1978 D. Murphy Place Apart xi. 226 Isn't it a tough world to be tryin' to raise twelve boys in? But T.G. so far they're good lads. |
| 1968 B. M. H. Strang Mod. Eng. Structure (ed. 2) 200 The most eminent *TG thinkers are still evolving and modifying parts of their theory. 1971 Archivum Linguisticum III. 64 Of recent years it is transformational-generative grammer (TG) that has undoubtedly called the tune. 1977 Trans. Philol. Soc. 1975 8 General linguists unsympathetic to TG. 1978 English Jrnl. Dec. 52/1 On the other hand, we should not jump indiscriminately into transformational-generative grammar. A full-blown TG grammar is complex. |
| 1980 N.Y. Times 19 Nov. 17/1 Among the trains being studied as possible models for Ohio is the French *TGV. |
| [1924 G. D. H. Cole Organised Labour ii. i. 20 The Transport Workers' Federation, which..has lost much of its importance since the formation of the *T. and G.W.U.] 1955 Times 2 May 12/6 He became general secretary of the T.G.W.U. in 1945. 1957 Economist 26 Oct. 292/1 Last July the TGWU, together with the other unions involved, called an official strike of the provincial busmen. 1977 M. Walker National Front vi. 157 It was an American executive who flew to secret talks with the TGWU union negotiators at Llandudno. |
| 1968 Time 19 Apr. 79 At a Chicago conference on psychedelic drugs, Dr. Donald R. Jasinski..reported that he had produced LSD-like symptons with tetrahydrocannabinol (*THC), one of the purified active ingredients of cannabis. 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Mar. 240/5 Marijuana smokers in the United States are ‘playing at cannabis use’—in that their daily ingestion of THC is only one-fifth of that of users in India, Egypt or Morocco. |
| 1885 C. S. Weeks Textbk. Nursing vii. 105/2 *T.i.d., ter in dies, three times a day. 1941 Jrnl. R. Naval Med. Service XXVII. 301 The course of atebrin tablets, one t.i.d. 1976 Amer. Speech 1973 XLVIII. 198 Referring to the exact times a patient must have a certain medication are b.i.d. for bis in die ‘twice daily’, t.i.d. for ter in die ‘three times a day’, [etc.]. |
| 1960 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XIV. 467/2 Inert gas shielding is essential with tungsten electrodes, hence the term Tungsten Inert Gas (*TIG) welding. 1969 D. K. Allen Metallurgy Theory & Practice xix. 612 (caption) Photomicrograph of a Tig weld with low voltage electron beam weld in center of Tig nugget to show relative width of heat affected zone in each process. 1975 Bram & Downs Manuf. Technol. ii. 55 The T.I.G. process differs from the manual metal-arc technique in as much as the electrode is virtually non-consumable. |
| 1968 E. Pugh Dict. Acronyms & Abbrev. 169 *TIR, Transports Internationale Routiers [sic]. 1969 Jane's Freight Containers 1968–69 141/1 For road transport, the so-called ‘TIR’ Convention, concluded under the auspices of the ECE, allows the transport of goods under Customs seal in lorries from the Customs office of departure to the Customs office of arrival. 1980 K. Hagenbach Fox Potential xii. 119 We passed a couple of big TIR trucks, each pulling a trailer. |
| 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §704/1 Technical knockout,..*T.K.O. 1956 ‘T. Betts’ Across the Board xxi. 296 Endocrinology TKO's Freud in the second round. 1968 M. Richler in R. Weaver Canad. Short Stories 2nd Ser. 164 ‘You lost by a TKO,’ my father said. ‘Thanks,’ my mother said. 1971 Weekend World (Johannesburg) 9 May 1/3 Tulwana's fly weight title which Dlamini took on a third round t.k.o. 1975 J. Gores Hammett (1976) iii. 28 Revani TKO'd his Filipino opponent after..using his gut as a workout bag in the fourth [round]. |
| 1972 Oxf. Univ. Gaz. CII. Suppl. ii. 12 Development and application of *TL at the National Museum, Edinburgh. 1978 Times 11 Nov. 3 *TL-dating was developed in the 1960s for dating pottery and other fired materials from archaeological sites. |
| 1960 I. A. Stanton Dict. for Medical Secretaries 149/1 *T.L.C., abbreviation for tender, loving care. 1973 Publishers Weekly 19 Nov. 55/1 The contagious potential of his TLC when he launches a yarn. 1977 Listener 12 May 605/3 It is in a nurse's nature and in her tradition to give to the sick what is well called ‘TLC’, ‘tender loving care’. |
| 1961 Jrnl. Amer. Oil Chemists Soc. XXXVIII. 316/1 *TLC has a number of features which make it an ideal technique for the analysis of these compounds. 1975 Williams & Wilson Biologist's Guide to Princ. & Techniques Pract. Biochem. iii. 58 Adsorbents used in t.l.c. differ from column adsorbents in that they may contain a binding agent such as calcium sulphate. 1980 Nature 8 May 105/1 To determine the sequence of the two amino acids, the active sample was dansylated, hydrolysed and the dansyl derivative examined by TLC. |
| 1965 M. J. Langford Basic Photogr. 376/1 (Index), *TLR. 1978 SLR Camera Sept. 61/1 Rollei..originally only manufactured top quality TLR cameras. 1979 Amat. Photographer 10 Jan. 110/2 I'd recommend the TLR every time if monochrome prints are the objective, more so when the prints are to over 10 × 8in. |
| 1953 R. Crawshay-Williams Let. 1 Aug. in B. Russell Autobiogr. (1969) III. ii. 91 There are a nice lot of sly digs..the *T.L.S. pastiche. 1967 E. Coxhead Thankless Muse i. 18 A little advance something in the TLS never comes amiss, does it? 1977 Bookseller 4 June 2704/2 The Times Literary Supplement (never called the T.L.S. then [in 1952]). |
| 1961 Webster, *TM, trademark. 1964 Trademarks in Marketplace (U.S. Trademark Assoc.) 64 We use the term ‘trademark’ right under the selected word, or we put a little ‘TM’ in the place where you normally would put the r. 1980 Sci. Amer. Oct. 138/1 (Advt.), The Clan of the Cave Bear, Earth's Childrentm, a novel by Jean M. Auel. |
| 1967 Listener 7 Sept. 299/1, I hear you're hostile to drugs now and have taken to *TM. 1977 E. V. Cunningham Case of One-Penny Orange (1978) ix. 110 Topanga Canyon..had..sensitivity centers and nudist camps and TM temples. 1980 Times 27 May 1/8 The Home office does not approve the use of TM in borstals or prisons. |
| 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 275 T.M. batteries were created for trench warfare and *T.M. schools of instruction were established. 1930 Brophy & Partridge Songs & Slang 1914–1918 173 When a T.M. battery had fired a few shots it departed with speed. |
| 1960 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. XLVI. 636 (heading) The amino acid composition and C-terminal sequence of a chemically evoked mutant of *TMV. 1974 W. K. Joklik in Carlile & Steehel Evolution in Microbial World 298 The fascinating work of Klug and his colleagues with TMV. |
| 1915 D. O. Barnett Let. 4 July 203 The yellow muck doesn't choke you, though, like the black greasy smoke (*T.N.T.) which they generally have in the 6 and 8-inch shells. 1962 E. Snow Other Side of River (1963) xxix. 217 A responsible Western physicist's estimate that the world then possessed a nuclear weapons stockpile roughly the equivalent of forty tons of TNT for each person alive. 1979 O. Sela Petrograd Consignment 53 The casing contains a pound of TNT and it can be attached to a timing device. |
| 1853 Mrs. Gaskell Cranford v. 68 However, at the foot of the page was a small ‘*T.O.’, and on turning it over, sure enough, there was a letter to ‘my dear, dearest Molly’. 1889 E. C. Dowson Let. c 23 Jan. (1967) 29 When we will proceed to Pinoli or where you will. T.O. Act à votre discretion in the matter of booking seats. 1981 Oxf. Dict. for Writers & Editors 412/2 TO, turn over. |
| 1964 Overseas Jan. 22 On February 17, 1964, a new English-proficiency test for foreign students will be administered overseas. Called *TOEFL for short, this Test of English as a Foreign Language is designed to help..assess the language competence of foreign students. 1972 J. L. Dillard Black English 272 It is of primary importance that all such materials, like all TOEFL materials, take the student's native language (here, dialect) into full account. |
| 1954 *TOFC [see piggy-back advb. phr. (a., n.) b]. 1964 Economist 26 Sept. 1243/1 The [US] railways have introduced TOFC service—trailer-on-flatcar, better known as Piggyback. 1969 TOFC [see kangaroo n. 3 h]. |
| 1972 Guardian 22 Aug. 3/1 The missiles [are] called *TOWs... TOW stands for tube-launched, optically tracked, and wire-guided. 1976 N.Y. Times 28 Mar. 1 The TOW missile can be used offensively from jeeps or armed cars. |
| 1917 V. Brittain Let. 5 Dec. in Testament of Youth (1933) viii. 395 Morning work—i.e. beds, *T.P.R.s (temperatures, pulses, respirations), washings, medicines, etc. 1976 Amer. Speech 1973 XLVIII. 197 His vitals ‘vital signs’ such as temperature, pulse, and respiration (TPR). |
| 1945 Electronic Industries Sept. 226 *T R switch, transmit-receive switch. A switch which prevents the transmitted energy from getting to the receiver, but allows the received energy, which is much weaker, to reach the receiver without appreciable loss. This is necessary when the same antenna is used for both transmission and reception. 1975 D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. ix. 23 Such limiters are replacing TR gas discharge tubes in radar. |
| 1959 K. Shibusawa et al. in Endocrinol. Jap. VI. 31 We found a thyroid stimulating neurohumor in the hypothalamus... It was provisionally designated by us as *TRF (Thyrotropin Releasing Factor). 1972 Clin. Endocrinol. (1973) (B.M.A.) 47 Thyrotrophin-releasing factor (TRF), has recently been synthesized. |
| 1968 A. V. Schally et al. in Rec. Progr. Hormone Res. XXIV. 449 (table) Present name... Thyrotropin-releasing factor. TRF... Proposed name... Thyrotropin-releasing hormone. *TRH. 1977 Proc. R. Soc. Med. LXX. 698/1 The chief value of the thyrotrophin releasing hormone (TRH) test has been the diagnosis of dysthyroid eye disease. |
| 1962 Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quantitative Biol. XXVIII. 559 The system consisted of E. coli ribosomes and high speed super natant which contained transfer RNA (*T-RNA), the amino acyl-T-RNA synthetases, and the enzymes involved in the final steps of the synthesis of the polypeptide chain. 1966 Ibid. XXXI. 587/1 The elution profiles of noninfected-cell and infected cell arginyl tRNA exhibit unambiguous major differences. 1977 Time 4 Apr. 39/2 Aaron Klug..first determined the crystalline structure of transfer RNA (tRNA), the molecule that brings amino acids to the ribosome for assembly into protein. |
| 1944 A. M. Taylor Lang. World War II 69 *TS Cards: Beachhead chaplains are carrying a special ‘tough stuff’ ticket these days which they issue to guys with complaints about which nothing can be done. 1944 Yank 18 Aug. 16/2, I..will be ever grateful for any possible solution, for I have tried everything I know, even prayer. Still TS. 1946 Amer. Speech XXI. 249 A T.S. ticket is an imaginary form entitling the bearer to sympathy and nothing else. ‘All I can do is punch ya T.S. ticket (or slip) for ya.’ 1946 Amer. Jrnl. Social. Mar. 422 One such expression is ‘TS’ or ‘tough s―’... ‘TS’, resigned acceptance, said with a bitter smile. 1966 Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 4 Dec. 73/4 [GI Jargon] TS, tough situation. |
| 1942 Partridge Dict. Abbrev. 97/1 *t.s. or ts. or ts; also T.S., etc., typescript. 1975 Record (Oxf. Univ. Press) xx. 24/1, 11 unsolicited poetry TSS in one week. |
| 1975 Petroleum Rev. XXIX. 399/2 The *TSA has been very active since its inception. 1976 Even. Post (Nottingham) 15 Dec. 12/7 The TSA's direct training services which include the provision of specially tailored courses to meet individual requirements. |
| 1941 Trans. Amer. Assoc. Study Goiter 161 Media, which originally contained *TSH in a concentration equivalent to one unit per cubic centimeter were found to have lost about seven-eighths of their activity. 1983 Oxf. Textbk. Med. I. x. 12/2 Hypothyroidism due to TSH deficiency is often mild and easily overlooked. |
| 1950 Good Housek. Picture Cookery 161/1 Unboiled fondant. 1 lb icing sugar..tartar..1 *tsp. lemon juice..1 egg white. 1955 R. J. Schwartz Compl. Dict. Abbrev. 178/1 tsp, teaspoon. 1973 Rubinstein & Bush Penguin Freezer Cookbk. 211, ½ lb. tomatoes, 1 tsp. allspice, 1 tsp. pine kernels. |
| 1935 Duckworth & Langmuir West Highland Steamers ii. 107 *T.S.S. ‘Flowerdale’..came into Mr. MacBrayne's hands as his first twin screw sea-going steamer. 1981 ‘J. Ashford’ Loss of ‘Culion’ viii. 52, I understand you've some information on the sinking of the TSS Culion..in the Indian Ocean. |
| [1841 Niles' Reg. 21 Feb. 400/3 *TTT. They have temperance wagons in the west, marked with three Ts, to denote that the owner is a tee-to-taller.] 1922 Joyce Ulysses 159 Selfish those t.t's are. Dog in the manger. 1936 Punch 22 July 97/2 Every birthday he gets a magnificent..Gift Of wine... It is sad To add I've brought him up to be T.T. 1975 J. Symons Three Pipe Problem v. 35 Can't offer you a beer, strict TT. |
| 1893 R. Bithell Counting-House Dict. (rev. ed.) 292 *T.T., telegraphic transfer. 1927 Financial Times 3 May 1/4 Kobe, T.T. Yen 24·58d. 1940 Economist 11 May 862/2 This compares with..1/8 per cent. for T.T. redemptions from Palestine. 1966 A. Gilpin Dict. Econ. Terms 201 (heading) Telegraphic Transfer (‘T.T.’). |
| 1913 W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. 192/1 *T.T. (motor), Tourist Trophy machine. Ibid., T.T. Race (motor), Auto-Cycle Tourist Trophy Race. 1914 Autocar 16 May 948/2 (heading) The T.T. race. 1929 Motor 2 July 1060/1 A driver who has, after all, driven at Le Mans and in the T.T. 1976 Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 17 Nov. 21/5 The Isle of Man programme will include the usual classic TT. |
| 1927 Field 15 Sept. 413/1 There are now a larger number of farmers producing Grade A (*T.T.) milk. 1958 Times 28 July 11/5 A T.T. dairy farm. 1970 A. Jenkins Drinka Pinta x. 105 Scots were particularly keen that it should be Grade ‘A’ (T.T.) milk. |
| 1948 F. Worsley ITMA 21 The beloved Cockney Charlady, Mrs. Mopp (played by Dorothy Summers)..did not make her first appearance..until 10th October, 1941... Another of her famous sayings were the letters ‘*T.T.F.N.’—a contraction of ‘Ta-ta for now’ with which she made her exit. 1966 A. Hall Frost 19 ‘See you soon then.’ ‘T.T.F.N.’ 1976 Observer 11 Apr. 2/6 JY [sc. Jimmy Young] said TTFN to Mr Healey. |
| 1968 Amateur Photographer 24 Apr. 4/2 (Advt.), The most sought after *T.T.L. camera! 1978 Ibid. 2 Aug. 101/1 Landscapes with a lot of sky detail in the shot can often be wrongly exposed, particularly if the camera has TTL metering. |
| 1963 Electronics 22 Mar. 54/1 Transistor-transistor logic (*TTL) offers a saturated-transistor logic that is simple, compact, and has a high degree of design flexibility. 1967 Ibid. 6 Mar. 123/1 Litton Industries Inc. had developed the ‘Phoenix gate’ TTL for the Phoenix missile. 1977 Sci. Amer. Sept. 79/3 Compared with the previous family of RTL gates, TTL circuits provide greater output power (so that more gates in the next stage of an array can be driven), less stringent tolerances in manufacturing and greater immunity to spurious voltages. |
| 1965 Realist Mar. 24 *TVs are not as feminine as they themselves think they are. 1979 J. Hansen Skinflick (1980) x. 81 Spence doesn't want to be fooled. He knows I'm a TV. 1983 The Magazine Apr. 24/3 We get a lot of TVs in and a few of the leather boys of course. |
| 1963 Times 2 Feb. 9/5 When we enter the Common Market,..a *T.V.A. (tax value added) tax will have to be substituted for purchase tax. 1963 Economist 17 Aug. 567/2 The probable impact of a TVA tax on different types of industries. 1965 Listener 22 Apr. 585/2 The added-value tax is commonly known as the TVA. |
| 1935 Harvard Law Rev. XLVIII. 806 It would seem that if the *TVA is in fact unconstitutional, the contracts are subject to rescission. 1936 N.Y. Herald Tribune 4 June 36/8 The T.V.A. development. 1943 J. S. Huxley TVA 7 TVA stands for Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Tennessee Valley Authority is the outstanding example of democratic planning. 1965 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 7 Apr. (1970) 256 Lyndon talked about the vast Mekong River project which can provide food and water and power on a scale to dwarf even our own TVA. |
| 1968 Guardian 4 July 7/6 What *TVP has been created from is mercifully not revealed. 1969 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 18 Mar. 120/2 TVP... For unflavored and meat and poultry flavored vegetable protein food... First use on or before May 2, 1966. 1974 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 24 Feb. 14/1 High-protein mock-meat has been in use in a fairly small way for some years... Known as tvp—textured vegetable protein—it comes in ‘extruded’ chunks, or minced. 1975 Trade Marks Jrnl. 21 May 1049/1 TVP ... Foods prepared from soya bean derivatives and included in Class 9. Archer Daniels Midland Company.., Decatur, Illinois, United States of America; manufacturers and merchants. 1976 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Feb. 166/1 The chunks of fictionalized, texturized social history (which are to drama as TVP to steak). |
| 1933 Meccano Mag. Apr. 270/2 *T.W.A. state that most of the transcontinental air mail is carried by their machines. 1941 B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? vi. 93 They were flying back again via TWA. 1960 [see red carpet s.v. red a. 19 a]. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 17 Apr. 20/5 Pressed by banks that had lent TWA millions, he sold his TWA stock for $546,549,171. |
b. Biol. T designates lymphocytes that are derived from or have been processed by the thymus, which are responsible for cellular immune reactions.
| 1970 New Scientist 7 May 271/1 Some of the lymphocytes..‘stray’ into the thymus gland, where they are converted..into a new sort of lymphocyte, called a T cell. 1973 Sci. Amer. July 58/1 T cells and B cells cannot be distinguished by their form. 1974 Nature 8 Feb. 387/2 T lymphocytes in human peripheral blood may be identified by their ability to form rosettes in vitro with untreated sheep erythrocytes. 1976 Path. Ann. XI. 437 During famine the severity and frequency of diseases kept in check by T-cell function, such as tuberculosis, will increase. 1982 Arms & Camp Biology (ed. 2) xxxiv. 541 Lymphocytes may be divided into two major groups, T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes. |
7. In combinations containing the
abbrev. T (or extension, as T.D.) followed by a word, as
T-Bill [
treasury n.]
= treasury bill s.v. treasury n. 6 (
cf. T.B., sense 6 a above);
T.D. pipe U.S. [see
quot. 1889], a kind of clay pipe;
T-group Psychol. [
training vbl. n.], a sensitivity-training group (see
sensitivity 4);
T-man U.S. colloq. [
treasury n.:
cf. G-man b], a law enforcement officer of the Treasury Department;
T-rule Linguistics [
transformational a.]
= transformational rule (see
transformational a.);
T scale,
score Psychol. [Thorndike-Terman (see
quot. 1922)], a method of scaling or scoring a psychological test;
T stop (
Photogr.) [
transmission], a measured point on a scale of aperture values based on the actual light transmitted through the lens of a camera; similarly
T number;
T-unit Linguistics [
terminable a.], a minimal terminable unit (see
quot. 1965).
| 1982 Daily Tel. 27 Sept. 18 Examples..occur in financial futures, with the difference between the futures price and the price of its underlying cash instrument (cf. gold futures and the bullion price, or T-Bill futures and cash *T-Bills). |
| 1880 Harvard Lampoon 19 Mar. 26/2 So, after he had taken his breath of fresh air, he filled his *T.D. pipe. 1889 Amer. N. & Q. II. 114 ‘T.D. Pipes.’.. It is said that they took their name from Timothy Dexter, an eccentric capitalist, who in his will left a large sum of money to be expended in the erection of a factory where cheap clay pipes, such as those that now bear the name of ‘T.D.'s’, were to be manufactured. [1947 E. H. Paul Linden on Saugus Branch 27 Deacon Parker, known to the boys as T.D., because he smoked the one-cent clay pipes of that name.] |
| 1950 Jrnl. Social Issues VI. ii. 3 Most of the core staff goes through a ‘Practicuum in Group Membership’ seminar worked out along the lines of the ‘*T’ group training program at the National Training Laboratory in Group Development. 1967 M. Argyle Psychol. Interpersonal Behaviour x. 193 T (training)-groups were first developed in the National Training Laboratories at Bethel, Maine, in 1947... The members of a T-group spend their time studying the group and the processes of social interaction that take place in it. 1977 N.Y. Times 15 July c 22/2 We already spend far too much time practicing artificial modes of sociability, such as group encounters, sensitivity training, ‘T’ groups, Rolfing and the like. |
| 1938 Sun (Baltimore) 12 Mar. 10/7 Comparatively little has been heard in late times about the Treasury Department's ‘*T-men’. 1952 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 6 Feb. 1/5 T-man William Frank says backdating of tax returns is the major irregularity he found. |
| 1951 G. H. Sewell Amateur Film-Making (ed. 2) iii. 32 The *T number indicates the actual light transmission obtained by measuring instruments. 1961 G. Millerson Telev. Production iii. 38 Modern lenses are sometimes marked in ‘T’ numbers rather than f-numbers. |
| 1964 E. Bach Introd. Transformational Gram. iv. 60 The difference between PS rules and *T rules can be made clearer..by the following remarks. 1976 Language LII. 108 In 1962, Wolfgang Motsch proposed a T-rule for a class of German adjectives. |
| 1922 W. A. McCall How to measure in Educ. x. 299 It is a tribute to their genius to call the proposed unit..a Thorndike-Terman, or, for brevity, a T... Every product scales [sic] may be transmuted into *T scales, thereby making all scales performance scales. |
| 1954 A. Anastasi Psychol. Testing iv. 83 If the normalized standard score is multiplied by 10 and added to or subtracted from 50, it is converted into a *T-score, a type of score first proposed by McCall. 1970 F. G. Brown Princ. Educ. & Psychol. Testing vii. 173 T scores were originally defined..with reference to a particular norm group... However, as used today, the T-score designation generally applies to any normalized standard score system with X = 50 and s = 10. |
| 1956 J. J. Rose Amer. Cinematographer (ed. 9) 133 The new method of calibration will be known as the ‘*T’ Stop system, the T denoting transmission of light and the ‘T’ stops representing absolutely accurate light measurement. 1977 J. Hedgecoe Photographer's Handbk. 344 ‘T’ stops, more accurate measurement of light entering a lens than ‘f’ numbers. |
| 1965 K. W. Hunt Gram. Structure written at Three Grade Levels iii. 21 These units might be christened ‘minimal terminable units’, since they would be minimal as to length, and each would be grammatically capable of being terminated with a capital letter and a period. For short, the ‘minimal terminable unit’ might be nicknamed a ‘*T-unit’... T-unit will be the name used for it in this investigation. 1975 Language for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) iii. 39 Writing of high quality can employ a simple style that would not necessarily yield a high score as measured by the T-unit. 1977 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1974 lxi/lxii. 30 The transcripts of these interviews (exclusive of garbles and false starts) were marked off into T-units and the mean length of T-units was computed for each informant. |
8. Used as a symbol.
a. Physics. [Adopted as being the next letter after S alphabetically (
cf. S 7).]
T is the symbol of the quantum number of iso-spin;
= I 7 b.
| 1937 E. Wigner in Physical Rev. LI. 110/1 The quantum numbers S2, Tζ,ζY can be called magnetic quantum numbers. They determine..the µ uniquely. Ibid. 117/1 A total isotopic spin T will be a term with the same binding energy for all nuclei with isotopic numbers from -T to T. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XIII. 339/2 Isospin-equal-one states can exist in the three isobars 62 He, 63 Li, and in 64 Be, whereas the T = 0 state can exist only in 63 Li. |
b. Bacteriology. [Initial letter of
type.] T followed by a numeral is the designation of certain strains of phages of the bacterium
Escherichia coli that have been much used experimentally. So
T-even, designating the strains for which the numeral is even.
| 1944 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. XXX. 398 The viruses used were the strains α and γ described by Delbrück and Luria and a new strain..which has been determined to be identical with strain T7 of Demerec and Fano [reference given to paper ‘in press’, quoted next.] 1945 Demerec & Fano in Genetics XXX. 119 The materials used in our experiments consisted of the same bacterial strain—E. coli B—previously used by Luria and Delbrück.., of seven phage strains active on B, and of various strains of bacteria..resistant to one or more of the phages. The phage strains were indicated as type 1 to type 7 (T1 to T7). 1960 New Biol. XXXI. 78 One group of the larger phages..has become the best understood of any kind of virus. These are the closely related T2, T4 and T6, known collectively as the T-even phages. 1968 H. Harris Nucleus & Cytoplasm iii. 46 It was known at the time that this work was undertaken that when E. coli cells were infected with the T-even bacteriophages net synthesis of bacterial RNA was rapidly inhibited. 1973 R. G. Krueger et al. Introd. Microbiol. xiv. 410/2 Studies of T4 mutants have gone a long way towards elucidating the steps by which biological structures, such as the head and tail of the virus, are assembled. |
c. Astronautics. [Initial letter of
time.] T represents the time at which a spacecraft is due to be launched.
| 1959 Manch. Guardian 3 Jan. 5 ‘T-time’ is the moment the firing switch is closed to set off a missile. 1970 N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon ii. 32 Only in the latter stages of the final countdown does the nomenclature change to T minus hours and minutes. |
III. 9. T at the end of a word has sometimes been attached to the word following when this begins with a vowel: hence
the to,
the tone,
the tother;
cf. also
'tis,
'twas, etc. in
't. The final
t of
Saint has in several cases been popularly prefixed to the name, as in
Tandrew,
Tandry = St. Andrew;
Tann = St. Ann, hence
Tanswell;
Tantolin = St. Antholin;
Tooly = St. Olave; see also
tanton,
tantony,
tawdry.
| c 1450 Mankind 75 in Macro Plays 4, I gyff no force, by Sent Tanne! 1673 Hickeringill Greg. F. Greyb. 264 Our Tantlin Lectures. 1726 F. Howgrave Stamford 53 The Corruption that has been made of St. Anthony into Tantony, and St. Olave into Tooly. 1872 Hardwick Trad. Lanc. 269 Cakes baked for the lace-makers' feasts in honour of St. Andrew..are locally termed ‘Tandry Cakes’. 1880 W. Cornw. Gloss., 'T Andrew's dance, St. Vitus' dance. |
10. In early
ME.,
t took the place of initial
þ,
th, after a word ending in a dental or
s,
esp. in the demonstratives
the,
that,
this,
tha,
there,
then,
thus, etc., and the 2nd personal pronoun
thou and its cases. Already in
OE.,
þæt þe became
þætte,
that.
| c 1200 Ormin 325 Þiss streon þatt tuss wass sibb Wiþþ preostess & wiþþ kingess. Ibid. 12760 Nu shallt tu ben nemmnedd Cefas. a 1240 Wohunge in Cott. Hom. 271 Hwa is ta largere þen þu. c 1400 Rule St. Benet 23 Þis sais sain benet, þat ta þat ere of elde and vnderstandis, þai sal haue þaire mesur. |
IV. 11. 2,4,5-T: a selective herbicide used
esp. for controlling brushwood; 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid, C
6H
2Cl
3·O·CH
2COOH.
| 1947 Bot. Gaz. CIX. 194/2 The use of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) has been emphasized in nearly all investigations.., although the possible use of 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) for similar purposes was recognized by Hamner and Tukey. 1956 Nature 3 Mar. 418/1 An investigation into the effect of the arboricide 2,4,5-T on freshly cut stumps of thicket suggests that this substance may be of practical value in preventing regeneration. 1977 New Yorker 25 July 37/2 The military had withdrawn huge stocks of Agent Orange—a fifty-fifty mixture of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D, which was principally used in its herbicidal operations—from Vietnam. |
______________________________
Add:
[II.] [6.] [a.] TI,
Ti (
Biol.), tumour-inducing;
spec. in
Ti plasmid, a plasmid (
orig. referred to as a ‘tumour-inducing principle’ or
TIP, this being still
occas. used to denote ‘tumour-inducing plasmid’), found in some strains of
Agrobacterium tumefaciens, whose presence is necessary to induce the formation of crown galls in plant tissue infected by the bacterium.
| 1954 Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. V. 141 The affected cells acquire as a result of the action of *TIP [sc. tumour-inducing principle] only the potentiality for autonomous growth but not the capacity for rapid duplication. 1974 Nature 8 Nov. 169/2 The correlation between the loss of the plasmid and the loss of the tumour-inducing plasmid (TIP) being 100{pcnt}. 1976 Molecular & Gen. Genetics CXLV. 180/2 Both the specificity and the activity of the enzyme-systems for octopine or nopaline utilization in A. tumefaciens strains are coded for by the TI plasmid. 1984 Nat. Geographic Dec. 834/2 A French-bean gene was inserted into a Ti plasmid..from a microbe. |
7. T-bird N. Amer. colloq. [
thunder n.], a ‘Ford Thunderbird’ motor car, a type of large, sporty coupé or convertible.
| [1956 Amer. Speech XXXI. 229 T-bird, a T-33 jet trainer.] 1958 (Advt.) in W. P. Boyer Thunderbird (1986) 170/1 The new T-bird has four of the most comfortable, most luxurious, full-sized..seats you can imagine. 1964 Wilson & Love Fun, Fun, Fun (song) in B. Wilson Beach Boys Endless Summer (1975) 23 She'll have fun, fun, fun, till her daddy takes the T-bird away. 1981 L. Deighton XPD xx. 180 He took his T-bird and headed south. |
______________________________
▸
T-back n. (a) a high-cut undergarment or swimming costume having only a thin strip of material passing between the buttocks;
cf. G string n. 2b,
tanga n.2;
(b) a style of bra, bikini top, etc., in which shoulder straps meeting below the back of the neck are joined to the back of the garment by a single supporting vertical strap between the shoulder blades.
| 1981 Bon Appétit May 126/1 (advt.) Erotic but elegantly so, with a plunged tie front and baring *T-back of curve-clinging lace. 1986 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 5 Aug. c16/1 His T-back tank tops, thong-style next-to-nothing bottoms..will be in Bloomingdale's and Bergdorf-Goodman this fall for $58 to $65. 1990 Littlewoods Catal. Spring–Summer 302 Pack of two front-fastening bras... T-back ensures shoulder straps cannot move off shoulders. 1994 News (Boca Raton, Florida) 5 Feb. b4 Saying bare derrieres and family values don't mix, commissioners of this gulf-front city [sc. Clearwater, Florida] have voted to ban T-back bathing suits. 1997 Chicago Tribune 9 Mar. xiii. 4/3 For unrestricted movement, especially for swimming, look for a tank with a cut-away T-back. |
______________________________
▸
TCP n. Computing = Transmission Control Protocol n. at
transmission n. Additions (originally,
Transmission Control Program).
| 1974 V. G. Cerf & R. E. Cahn in IEEE Trans. Communications 22 640/1 Within a host we assume the existence of a transmission control program (*TCP) which handles the transmission and acceptance of messages on behalf of the processes it serves. 1976 L. Garlick Request for Comments (Network Working Group) (Electronic text) No. 721. 1 Such a satisfactory mechanism does not exist in the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) of Cerf et. al. 1985 Infor: Canad. Jrnl. Operational Res. 23 294 Originally designed to handle unreliable and hostile subnets in a long-haul network, TCP has been adopted by many local area networks (LAN) as well. 1996 WEBTechniques Dec. 50/2 A single connection can be kept open for the duration of the user interaction with an image, which will improve network performance by..allowing the TCP transmission window to throttle up completely. |
______________________________
▸
TCP/IP n.>
n.1 Additions
Computing a protocol incorporating TCP and IP which enables data to be transmitted between computers on the Internet or other network.
| 1980 J. B. Postel Request for Comments (Network Working Group) (Electronic text) No. 761. 42 There are of course two interfaces of concern: the user/TCP interface and the *TCP/IP interface. 1982 COMPCON 82 High Technol. in Information Industry 319/2 Implementation of a local computer network..[uses]..the ISO network model under the Unix operating environment in conjunction with Ethernet and Department of Defense standard TCP/IP protocols. 1998 P. E. Ceruzzi Hist. Mod. Computing ix. 295 This interconnection of networks to one another, using the glue of TCP/IP, constitutes the present-day Internet. 2000 Personal Computer World Aug. 161/3 Rather than specifying a single machine, you can use a network number and hostmask..to add a whole range of TCP/IP addresses. |
______________________________
▸
TDA n. (chiefly
Brit. Police slang and
Criminals' slang) taking and driving away a vehicle without the owner's consent; (an instance of) vehicle theft.
| 1976 H. Ferguson Confessions of Long Distance Acid Head 63 This guy had been arrested for *T.D.A.,..and for driving without a licence. 1992 in R. Graef Living Dangerously ii. 60, I used to have a lot of money in my pocket on the run. I financed it with TDAs every day. 2000 M. Blake 24 Karat Schmooze (2001) xviii. 200 True, they both had form..but they reckoned they were going to walk away from this little jolly. Theft and TDA? Slap on the wrist. |
______________________________
▸
TQA n. Business = total quality assurance n. at
total adj. and
n. Additions.
| 1974 Managem. Rev. June 25 Total quality assurance (TQA) is a relatively new system that requires all members of the production management team to participate in satisfying the customer's quality needs. 2002 CED (Nexis) Jan. 48 The TQA program provides customers with a trained quality assurance staff which monitors a percentage of the daily work performed by the technicians in the field. |
______________________________
▸
TQC n. Business = total quality control n. at
total adj. and
n. Additions.
| 1980 Japan Econ. Jrnl. 9 Sept. 18 The firm decided to adopt the long-term program as its *TQC (total quality control) campaign, started in its 1978 business year, has been well observed within the company. 2000 R. L. Nersesian Trends & Tools for Operations Managem. x. 223 Japan was the first nation to embrace the concept of TQC and bootstrapped itself to a world industrial power. |
______________________________
▸
TQM n. Business = total quality management n. at
total adj. and
n. Additions.
| [1985 Business Wire (Nexis) 18 Mar. The influence of the corporate Total Quality Management System (TQMS) comes through initial design of the product or process.] 1986 Financial Times 1 Aug. 14/6 In some European countries such as the UK, companies are just beginning to embark on a *TQM programme—which incorporates quality into every aspect of a business, from the shop floor to the board room. 1999 Washington Post 22 Nov. c1/3 Do you prefer TQM or more of a business process approach? |
______________________________
▸
TRC n. = Truth and Reconciliation Commission at
truth n. Additions.
| 1995 SASH (Mowbray, S. Afr.) Jan. 21/1 You have expressed some concerns about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (*TRC). 2005 SL (Cape Town) Feb. 12/1 It takes you through the history of the genocide..to the aftermath—with stories from survivors, and the Gacaca..hearings, the Rwandan equivalent of the TRC. |