Forms: 1–3 þeaw, þeau, (1 ðeow), 2–3 þæw, 2–5 þew, þewe, 3 þeauw, þeuw, þeæw, þeu, 4 theaw, 4–5 theu, thue, 4–9 thewe, (5 thegh), 4– thew. [OE. þéaw = OS. thau usage, custom, habit, OHG. thau (dau) discipline. Not recorded outside WGer. langs. Ulterior etymology uncertain.]
† 1. A custom, usage, general practice (e.g., of a people, community, or class). Obs.
Beowulf, 360. Cuþe he duʓuðe þeaw.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. x. § 2. Siþþan wæs hiera þeaw.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John xix. 40. Sua ðeau Iuðeum [Rushw. ðeow iudea, Ags. Gosp. iudea þ[e]aw, Hatton G. iudea þæw] is bybyrʓe.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 47. Wich þeau was on þe olde laȝe. Ibid. Swich þeu wes bi þan daȝen.
† b. pl. Customs ordained; ordinances. Obs.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 544. In de-voydynge þe vylanye þat venkquyst his þewez. Ibid., 755.
1624. Quarles, Job vii. 7. Thy sacred Thewes, and sweet Instructions, did Helpe those were falling, rays’d up such as slid.
† 2. A custom or habit of an individual; manner of behaving or acting; hence, a personal quality (mental or moral); a characteristic, attribute, trait. Chiefly in pl. Obs.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxvii. § 2. Wisdom … ælces godes þeawes he ʓefyllð þone þe hinc lufað. Ibid. (c. 893), Oros., VI. xiv. § 1. He wæs swiþe yfel monn ealra þeawa.
971. Blickl. Hom., 217. Wæs he swiðe ʓeþungen on his ðeawum.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. xxxi. 5. Ic ʓeseo on eowres fader þeawum, þat he nys swa wel wið me ʓeworht.
c. 1200. Ormin, 7328. I dærne unnclene þohht & þæw.
c. 1205. Lay., 6361. Morpidus … Monnene strengest Of maine and of þeauwe.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 3. Euch meiden þat haueð meidene þeawes.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1947 (Cott.). To doghty thues lok þou þe gif.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Cor. xv. 33. Forsoth yuele spechis corumpen (or distroyen) goode thewis (or good vertues).
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 211. A man may not fynde in no beste, custume ne thegh, wyche is noght in a man.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 120. The vertues cardinalis … reule of all vertues and gude thewis as kingis.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 119. Full of eldnyng … and anger, and all euill thewis.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Dk. Clarence, xviii. In vertuous thewes.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. x. 59. Helena … in all godly thewes and goodly prayse Did far excell.
1805. Southey, Madoc, II. xviii. In martial thewes and manly discipline, To train the sons of Owen.
† b. Without qualification: A good quality or habit; a virtue; courteous or gracious action. Obs.
c. 1205. Lay., 300. Þis child leuede & wel iþei, & þeweas [c. 1275 þeuwes] hit luuede.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 278. Þes þeau [humility] is alre þeauwene moder.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2757. Hu a ȝunge man, at te welle[n] Ðewe and wursipe hem dede.
13[?]. Cursor M., 20996 (Cott.). A man o mekenes and o theu.
1357. Lay Folks Catech., 406. The third vertu or thew is charite.
c. 1400. Emare, 58. She thawȝth [= tawȝt] hyt curtesye and thewe, Golde and sylke for to sewe.
1575. Gascoigne, Notes Instr., in Steele Gl., etc. (Arb.), 37. This poeticall license … turkeneth all things at pleasure, for example, ydone for done … thewes for good partes or good qualities.
3. pl. Physical qualities, features, or personal endowments. † a. generally (e.g., the fair features or lineaments of a woman). Obs.
1567. Turberv., Ovid’s Epist., xv. N iv b. Doost thou thinke … that doltish silly man, The thewes of Helens passing forme, may iudge, or throughly scan? Ibid., xviii. Q vj. I leaue her thewes vntoucht, Wherein she may compare With heauenly peeres, such feature fals On earthlie creatures rare.
b. The bodily powers or forces of a man (L. vires), might, strength, vigor; in Shakespeare, bodily proportions, lineaments, or parts, as indicating physical strength; in modern use after Scott, muscular development, associated with sinews, and hence materialized as if = muscles or tendons.
1566. Nuce, trans. Seneca’s Octavia, I. iv. B iij b. Ere while thilke wretch recoyleth backe againe, And to my thews for ayde retyres amaine.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 276. Care I for the Limbes, the Thewes, the stature, bulke, and bigge assemblance of a man? giue mee the spirit. Ibid. (1601), Jul. C., I. iii. 81. Romans now Haue Thewes, and Limbes, like to their Ancestors. Ibid. (1602), Ham., I. iii. 12. Nature cressant does not grow alone, In thewes and Bulke.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., XVII. 271. He should on bulkier thewes Supported stand [cf. Pope, ibid., 264 If any labour those big joints could learn].
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, iii. My fellow-traveller, to judge by his thewes and sinews, was a man who might have set danger at defiance.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. vi. A man who values his kind mainly by their thews and their sinews.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., ciii. 31. I felt the thews of Anakim, The pulses of a Titan’s heart.
1887. Miss Braddon, Like & Unlike, i. Nature has been kinder to your brother in the matter of thew and sinew.
c. fig. Applied to cords or ropes.
1851. Melville, The Whale, xvi. I. 111 (Descr. of a ship). Bulwarks … garnished … with the long, sharp teeth of the sperm whale,… to fasten her old hempen thews and tendons to. Those thews ran not through base blocks of land wood, but deftly travelled through sheaves of sea-ivory.
