Now dial. and techn. Forms: 4–6 teme, 5 Sc. teym, 6 Sc. teim, 7 teame, teeme, 7–9 team, 8 tem, 7– teem. [ME. tēme-n, a. ON. tœma (Sw. tömma, Da. tömme) to empty:—*tômjan, f. tómr empty, TOOM.]
1. trans. a. To empty (a vessel, etc.); to discharge or remove the contents of; to empty (a wagon, etc.).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12020. Bath he ditted þe water lade, And temed lakes þat he made.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter lxvii. 27. Fayre saules, þat has temyd þaire fleyss, and driyd it of þe humor of syn.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxv. (Julian), 544. Scho … temyt þe poyttis thre.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 488/1. Temyn or maken empty…, vacuo, evacuo.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VIII. 213. Saidlys thai teym off hors bot maistris thar.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxviii. 36. The fetteris lowsit and the dungeoun temit.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., IV. (S.T.S.), 204. Quhen he had teimed the hartes of mony of the foul puddil of errour and vice.
1650. H. More, Observ., in Enthus. Tri., etc. (1650), 92. Magicus will not stick to teem Urinals on your heads.
1789. Brand, Hist. Newcastle, II. 684, note. Above ground … two banksmen … take off the corves at top, and empty, or, as the workmen call it, ‘teem’ them.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt, Gloss., Teem, to empty, to pour out. ‘Teem the tub.’
b. To discharge (something out of or from a vessel, a cart, etc.); to empty out, pour out.
1482. Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1869), I. 45. Gudis ventit or temyt in the rade havin or toun of Leith.
1562. Turner, Baths, 5. They teme or emptye out euel humores.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., To Primroses. Just as the modest morne Teem’d her refreshing dew.
1729. Swift, Direct. Servants, Butler. You immediately teem out the remainder of the ale into the tankard.
1812. J. J. Henry, Camp. agst. Quebec, 96. The contents were teemed into a large bason.
1863. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s L., II. xv. 13. Better help her t’ teem t’ milk.
1863. Mrs. Toogood, Yorks. Dial., Team the water out of the kettle.
1889. Q. Rev., July, 138. Blister steel is … poured or ‘teemed’ into suitable ingot moulds.
c. absol.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 36. Wee have allwayes one man … whose office is to helpe to teame, that the waines be not hindered.
1855. J. R. Leifchild, Cornwall Mines, 38. Six men were teaming from the bottom into the pump.
1896. Warwickshire Gloss., This teapot don’t teem well.
2. intr. Of water, etc.: To pour, flow in a stream, flow copiously; of rain: to pour.
1828. Craven Gloss., s.v., It rains and teems.
a. 1846. G. Darley, Song, ‘Sweet in her green dell,’ ii. Down from the high cliffs the rivulet is teeming.
a. 1880. Jack & William, ii., in Child, Eng. & Sc. Pop. Ball. (1884), I. 444/2. The blood was teeming down.
1880. Leeds Mercury, 13 Sept., 8. The water then came teeming down the shafts.
Hence Teem sb. dial., a ‘pour,’ a downpour of rain: see Eng. Dial. Dict.
