Chapter Taherites to Talking Bird of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Take a Hair of the Dog that Bit You After a debauch, take a little wine the next day. Take a cool draught of ale in the morning, after a night's excess. The advice was given literally in ancient times, “If a dog bites you, put a hair of the dog into the wound,” on the homoeopathic principle of “Similia similibus curantur” (like cures like).

Take in Tow (To). Take under guidance. A man who takes a lad in tow acts as his guide and director. To tow a ship or barge is to guide and draw it along by tow-lines.

“Too proud for bards to take in tow my name.”
Peter Pindar: Future Laureate, Part ii.

Take Mourning (To). Attending church the Sunday after a funeral. It is the custom, especially in the northern counties, for all the mourners, and sometimes the bearers also, to sit in a specific pew all together the Sunday after a funeral. It matters not what place of worship they usually attend- all unite in the “taking mourning.”

Take Tea with Him (I), i.e. I floor my adversary by winning every rubber. If he beats me in billiards, he “has me on toast.” (Indian slang.)

Takin' the Beuk A Scotch phrase for family worship.

Taking On Said of a woman in hysterics; to fret; to grieve passionately, as, “Come, don't take on so!”

“Lance, who ... took upon himself the whole burden of Dame Debbitch's ... `taking on,' as such fits of passio hysterica are usually termed.”- Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. xxvi.

Taking a Sight Putting the right thumb to the nose and spreading the fingers out. This is done as much as to say, “Do you see any green in my eye?” “Tell that to the marines;” “Credat Judaeus, non ego.” Captain Marryat tells us that some “of the old coins of Denmark represent Thor with his thumb to his nose, and his four fingers extended in the air;” and Panurge (says Rabelais, Pantagruel, book ii. 19) “suddenly lifted his right hand, put his thumb to his nose, and spread his fingers straight out” to express incredulity.

“The sacristan he says no word that indicates a doubt,
But puts his thumb unto his nose, and spreads his fingers out.”
Ingoldsby: Nell Cook.

Taking Time by the Forelock Seize the present moment; “Carpe diem.” Time personified is represented with a lock of hair on his forehead but none on the rest of his head, to signify that time past cannot be used, but time present may be seized by the forelock.

Talbotype (3 syl.). A photographic process invented in 1839 by Fox Talbot, who called it “the Calotype Process.” (See Daguerrotype .)

Tale (1 syl.). A tally; a reckoning. In Exod. v. we have tale of bricks. A measure by number, not by weight.
   An old wife's tale. Any marvellous legendary story.
   To tell tales out of school. To utter abroad affairs not meant for the public ear.

Tale of a Tub (The). A ridiculous narrative or tale of fiction. The reference is to Dean Swift's tale so called.

Talent, meaning cleverness or “gift” of intelligence, is a word borrowed from Matt. xxv. 14-30.

Tales (2 syl.). Persons in the court from whom the sheriff or his clerk makes selections to supply the place of jurors who have been empanelled, but are not in attendance. It is the first word of the Latin sentence which provides for this contingency. (Tales de circumstantibus.)

“To serve for jurymen or tales.”
Butler: Hudibras, part iii. 8.

   To pray a tales. To pray that the number of jurymen may be completed. It sometimes happens that jurymen are challenged, or that less than twelve are in the court. When this is the case the jury can request that their complement be made up from