Now dial. Forms: 5–6 (9 dial.) thak, 6 thacke, 7 thake, Sc. thaick, 6– thack. [app. partly (in form thake) from OE. þacian, f. þæc THACK sb. (so MHG., Ger. dachen to roof, from dach): cf. Sc. mak, tak, for make, take; but thak, thack, may also have been a later formation from the sb. See also THATCH v., THEEK v.]
1. intr. To put thatch on houses; = THATCH v. 5.
a. 1100. Gerefa, in Anglia (1886), IX. 261. Me mæcg in Agusto and Septembri and Octobri ðacian, ðecgan and fald weoxian.
1486. Nottingham Rec., III. 247. Paid to a thakker thakkyng on þe same barne.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 27. To mowe theyr stubble, eyther to thacke or to bren. Ibid. (1523), Surv., xx. (1539), 42. He shall bothe thacke and daube at his owne coste.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 139. Thatchers allwayes beginne att the eize [eaves], and soe thake upwards till they come to the ridge.
2. trans. To cover (a roof) or roof (a house) with thatch, formerly also with lead, tiles, etc.; = THEEK v. 1; spec. to cover the top of a rick with straw or other material so laid as to carry off the rain.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 490/1. Thakkyn howsys, sartatego,… sarcitego.
1474. Coventry Leet-bk., 389. Þat no maner man frohensfurth thak ne couer his house with strawe nor brome within this Cite.
1530. Palsgr., 754/2. Sythe I can nat tyle my house, I must be fayne to thacke it.
1552. Inv. Ch. Goods (Surtees, No. 97), 9. The churche thacked with leade.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., V. iv. § 5. 22. Houses and cottages … Which, as Diodorus Siculus saith were vsually thacked with reed.
1621. [see thackstone, prec. 4].
1671. J. Fraser, Polichron. (S.H.S.), 496. Tirr the Kirk to thack the quire.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Thack, v. to thatch.
1863. Mrs. Toogood, Yorks. Dial., It will take two threave of strea to thack the hay-stack.
Hence Thacked ppl. a., thatched; Thacking vbl. sb., the action of thatching; also concr. the material used for the purpose, thatch.
1530. Palsgr., 699/1. This is a mete man to sytte on a *thacked house to scarre away crowes.
1597. 1st Pt. Return fr. Parnass., I. i. 134. Some thacked cottage or some cuntrie hall.
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., V. ii. 2091. True mirth we may enioy in thacked stall.
1828. Craven Gloss., Thack’d, thatched.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 490/1. *Thakkynge, sartatectum.
1546. Yorks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees), 168. The reparacion of the belles, thakkyng and other necessaries pertenyng to the sayd churche.
1613. Markham, Eng. Husbandman, I. I. xvii. (1635), 103. Whole Strawe Wheate … Husbandmen esteeme it so much for their thacking.
c. 1680. H. Leigh, in Macfarlane, Geog. Collect. (S.H.S.), III. 252. The common and ordinary thacking is of a kind of Divet [= sod].
