Chapter Toad-eater to Tom of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Toby The high toby, the high-road, the low toby, the by-road. A highwayman is a “high tobyman;” a mere footpad is a “low tobyman.”

“So we can do a touch now ... as well as you grand gentlemen on the high toby.”- Boldrewood: Robbery under Arms, chap. xxvi.

Toddy A favourite Scotch beverage compounded of spirits, hot water, and sugar. The word is a corruption of taudi, the Indian name for the saccharine juice of palm spathes. The Sanskrit is toldi or taldi, from tal (palm juice). (Rhind Vegetable Kingdom.)

Toes The most dexterous man in the use of his toes in lieu of fingers was William Kingston, born without hands or arms. (See World of Wonders, pt. x.; Correspondence, p. 65.)

Tofana An old woman of Naples immortalised by her invention of a tasteless and colourless poison, called by her the Manna of St. Nicola of Bari, but better known as Aqua Tofana. Above 600 persons fell victims to this insidious drug. Tofana died 1730.
   Hieronyma Spara, generally called La Spara, a reputed witch, about a century previously, sold a similar elixir. The secret was revealed by the father confessors, after many years of concealment and a frightful number of deaths.

Tog Togs, dress. (Latin, toga.) “Togged out in his best” is dressed in his best clothes. Toggery is finery.

Toga The Romans were called togati or gens togata, because their chief outer dress was a toga.

Toga'd or Togated Nation (The). Gens Togata, the Romans, who wore togas. The Greeks wore “palls,” and were called the gens palliata; the Gauls wore breeches, and were called gens braccata. (Toga, pallium, and braccae.)

Toledo Famous for its swords. “The temper of Toledan blades is such that they are sometimes packed in boxes, curled up like the mainsprings of watches”!! Both Livy and Polybius refer to them.

Tolmen (in French, Dolmen). An immense mass of stone placed on two or more vertical ones, so as to admit a passage between them. (Celtic, tol or dol, table; men, stone.)
   The Constantine Tolmen, Cornwall, consists of a vast stone 33 feet long, 14 1/2 deep, and 18 1/2 across. This stone is calculated to weigh 750 tons, and is poised on the points of two natural rocks.

Tolosa He has got the gold of Tolosa. (Latin proverb meaning “His ill-gotten wealth will do him no good.”) Caepio, in his march to Gallia Narbonensis, stole from Toulous (Tolosa) the gold and silver consecrated by the Cimbrian Druids to their gods. In the battle which ensued both Caepio and his brother consul were defeated by the Cimbrians and Teutons, and 112,000 Romans were left dead on the field. (B.C. 106.)

Tom Between “Tom” and “Jack” there is a vast difference. “Jack” is the sharp, shrewd, active fellow, but Tom the honest dullard. Counterfeits are “Jack,” but Toms are simply bulky examples of the ordinary sort, as Tomtoes. No one would think of calling the thick-headed, ponderous male cat a Jack, nor the pert, dexterous, thieving daw a “Tom.” The former is instinctively called a Tom-cat, and the latter a Jack- daw. The subject of “Jack” has been already set forth. (See Jack. ) Let us now see how Tom is used:-
   Tom o' Bedlam (q.v.). A mendicant who levies charity on the plea of insanity.
   Tom-cat. The male cat.
   Tom Drum's entertainment. A very clumsy sort of horse-play.
   Tom Farthing. A born fool.
   Tom Fool. A clumsy, witless fool, fond of stupid practical jokes, but very different from a “Jack Pudding,” who is a wit and bit of a conjurer.
   Tom Long. A lazy, dilatory sluggard.
   Tom Lony. A simpleton.
   Tom Noddy. A puffing, fuming, stupid creature, no more like a “Jack-a-dandy” than Bill Sikes to Sam Weller.
   Tom Noodle. A mere nincompoop.
   Tom the Piper's son. A poor stupid thief who got well basted, and blubbered like a booby.
   Tom Thumb. A man cut short or stinted of his fair proportions. (For the Tom Thumb of nursery delight, see next page.
   Tom Tidler. An occupant who finds it no easy matter to keep his own against sharper rivals. (See Tom Tidler's