a colloquial and familiar shortening of the word thousand; esp. a thousand pounds sterling; but also in other senses: see quots.
1869. trans. Sue’s Myst. Paris, I. xxvi. The annual amount of his betting-book reached to two or three ‘thous.’
1897. Speaker, 13 Nov., 531. The writer did not demean himself by fixing his price at so much ‘per thou.’
1899. Daily News, 23 Feb., 6/2. Fancy Wellington and Nelson coaxed for copy at the rate, say, of five hundred pounds a ‘thou.’
1903. Westm. Gaz., 30 June, 3/3. In engineering we divide the inch into one thousand parts, and the expression of dimensions in ‘thous,’ as they are called in workshops, is far more convenient than the expression of the same dimensions in parts of millimètres.
