Chapter Thelusson Act to Thirteen Unlucky of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Thersites A deformed, scurrilous officer in the Greek army which went to the siege of Troy. He was always railing at the chiefs, and one day Achilles felled him to the earth with his first and killed him. (Homer: Iliad.)

“He squinted, halted, gibbous was behind,
And pinched before, and on his tapering head
Grew patches only of the flimsiest down.
... Him Greece had sent to Troy,
The miscreant, who shamed his country most.”
Cowper's Translation, book ii.

   A Thersites. A dastardly, malevolent, impudent railer against the powers that be. (See above.

Theseus (2 syl.). Lord and governor of Athens, called by Chaucer Duke Theseus. He married Hippolita, and as he returned home with his bride, and Emily her sister, was accosted by a crowd of female suppliants, who complained of Creon, King of Thebes. The Duke forthwith set out for Thebes, slew Creon, and took the city by assault. Many captives fell into his hands, amongst whom were the two knights named Palamon and Arcite (q.v.). (Chaucer The Knight's Tale.)
   The Christian Theseus. Roland the Paladin.

Thespians Actors. (See below.)

Thespis, Thespian Dramatic. Thespis was the father of Greek tragedy.

“The race of learned men,
... oft they snatch the pen,
As if inspired, and in a Thespian rage;
Then write.”
Thomson: Castle of Indolence, c. i. 52.

“Thespis, the first professor of our art,
At country wakes sang ballads from a cart.”
Dryden: Prologue to Sophonisba.

Thessalian Deceitful, fraudulent; hence = fraud or deceit. = double dealing, referring to the double-dealing of the Thessalians with their confederates, a notable instance of which occurred in the Peloponnesian War where, in the very midst of the battle, they turned sides, deserting the Athenians and going over to the Lacedæmonians. The Loerians had a similar bad repute, whence but of all people, the Spartans were most noted for treachery.

Thestylis Any rustic maiden. In the Idylls of Theocritos, Thestylis is a young female slave.

“And then in baste her bower she leaves,
With Thestylis to bind the sheaves.”
Milton: L'Allegro.

Thick Through thick and thin (Dryden). Through evil and through good report; through stoggy mud and stones only thinly covered with dust.

“Through perils both of wind and limb
She followed him through thick and thin.”
Butler: Hudibras.

    “Thick and thin blocks” are pulley-blocks with two sheaves of different thickness, to accommodate different sizes of ropes.

Thick-skinned Not sensitive; not irritated by rebukes and slanders. Thin-skinned, on the contrary, means impatient of reproof or censure; their skin is so thin it annoys them to be touched.

Thief (See Autolycus, Cacus, etc.)

Thieves' Latin Slang; dog, or dog's Latin; gibberish.

“What did actually reach his ears was disguised so completely by the use of cant words and the thieves' Latin, called slang, that he ... could make no sense of the conversation.”- Sir W. Scott: Redyauntlet, chap. xiii.

“He can vent Greek and Hebrew as fast as I can thieves' Latin.”- Sir W. Scott: Kenilworth, chap. xxix.