Also 8 tau, 9 tor. [Origin unascertained, and order of senses uncertain: perh., like alley, ALLY sb.2, an abbreviation.]
A large choice or fancy marble, often streaked or variegated, being that with which the player shoots.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 30, ¶ 1. He is hiding or hoarding his Taws and Marbles.
a. 1761. Cawthorn, Wit & Learn., Poems (1771), 48. He minded but his top, or taw.
1807, 1833. [see ALLY sb.2].
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxxiv. Alter enquiring, whether he had won any alley tors or commoneys lately.
1843. Thackeray, Irish Sk. Bk., xxiv. Large agate marbles or ‘taws.’
a. 1845. Hood, Clapham Acad., xiv. Five who stoop The marble taw to speed.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. iii. His small private box was full of peg-tops, white marbles (called ‘alley-taws’ in the Vale), [etc.].
1876. Grant, Burgh Sch. Scotl., II. v. 179. A still greater favourite is shooting a ‘taw,’ which requires no small dexterity.
b. transf. A game played with such marbles.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 112, ¶ 3. A Game of Marbles, not unlike our modern Taw.
1784. Cowper, Tiroc., 307. To kneel and draw The chalky ring, and knuckle down at taw.
1798. Sporting Mag., XII. 169. At cricket, taw, and prison-bars, He bore away the bell.
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk.-bk. (1869), 45. I would lay a wager that … their school learning carried them … only to the game of taw.
c. The line from which the players shoot in playing the game. Hence in phrases: see quots.
1740. Dyche & Pardon, s.v. Knuckle, They frequently say, Knuckle down to your taw, or fit your hand exactly in the place where your marble lies.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., s.v., ‘Shoot from taw.’ ‘You don’t stand at taw.’… ‘If you don’t do so and so I’ll bring you to taw.’
1881. Leicesters. Gloss., s.v., A ring is scratched on the ground, and at some distance from it a straight line called taw. Ibid. We thus get the phrases … ‘come up to scratch’ and ‘come up to taw.’
