Obs. Also 5 teye, 6 taie, 6–7 taye. [In 5 teye, a. obs. F. teie, in Palsgr. taye (in senses 2, 3):—L. t(h)ēca:—Gr. θήκη case, covering, sheath.]
1. A case, sheath, outer covering.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 487/2. Teye, of a cofyr or forcer, teca, thecarium.
2. A web or cataract in the eye.
1547. Recorde, Judic. Ur., 59 b. It healeth creythys, and also the webbe and the tey in the eye.
1597. Lowe, Chirurg. (1634), 31. Some cataract or taye which covereth the prunall called the windowe of the eye. Ibid., 166. The Cataract or tey.
3. The outer membrane of the brain. [Cf. F. teie dure = dura mater.] Also taken as ‘skull,’ and ‘brain.’
a. 1568. ‘My wofull Hairt,’ etc., 44, in Bannatyne Poems (Hunter. Cl.), 83. Vpoun my heid thay thrang a croun of thorn,… The thorne pykis thay to my tay dang doun.
c. 1580. Jefferie, Bugbears, I. i., in Archiv Stud. Neu. Spr. (1897), XCVIII. 306. In stide of taies, he hathe bugbeares in his head.
