Thought¹

Forms: 1–3 ðoht, 1–4 þoht, 2–4 þouht, 3–4 þoȝt, 3–5 þouȝt, 5– thought; also 3 þoucht, (Orm.) þohht (ðhoȝt), 3–4 þoȝte, 4 thouȝt, (thouht, thouth, thout, toght); 4–5 þoght, thoȝt, (þout, þouth, thoȝth), Sc. thoucht; 4–7 thoght; 5 þowȝt, þouȝte, thoȝte, (thowhte, þowȝth, þowth, towyth (? towȝth), 5–6 thoughte, thowte, thowthe, 6 thowghte, thoft), 4– Sc. thocht. [OE. þoht, shortened from *þóht, :—*þaŋχt-, from stem of þencan THINK v.² + -T suffix³. Cf. OS. githâht (Du. gedachte), OHG. gidâht; also ON. þótti, þóttr, Goth. þûhtus (:—*puŋχtus). In most of the senses thought corresponds not so much to OE. þoht, as to the compound ʓeþoht, which survived in the 12th c. as iþoht: see sense 2.]

  1.  The action or process of thinking; mental action or activity in general, esp. that of the intellect; exercise of the mental faculty; formation and arrangement of ideas in the mind.

  In quot. c. 1250, thinking in a specified way; nearly = feeling, emotion.

a. 839.  Laws of Ecgbert, c. 5. Mid þohtes wilnunga … besmiten.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 2254. Quanne Iosep hem alle saȝ, Kinde ðoȝt in his herte was ðaȝ.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 513. Þise Ribaudes … repente hem … Þat euere þei wratthed þe … in worde, þouȝte, or dedes.

c. 1425.  Craft of Nombrynge (E.E.T.S.), 28. Here he teches þe to multiplie be þowȝt figures in þi mynde.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 492/1. Thowhte, or thynkynge, cogitacio.

1530.  Palsgr., 280/2. Thought, the laboryng of the mynde, cogitation, pensee.

1637.  Milton, Lycidas, 189. With eager thought warbling his Dorick lay.

1704.  Norris, Ideal World, II. iii. 102. Whether Brutes are capable of thought?

1794.  Paley, Evid., III. viii. (1817), 393. Thought … can be completely suspended and completely restored.

1853.  Kingsley, Hypatia, xiv. 166. The pale … student, oppressed with the weight of careful thought.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 270. Psychology … analyses the transition from sense to thought.

  b.  As a function or attribute of a living being: Thinking as a permanent characteristic or condition; the capacity of thinking; the thinking faculty; in early use often nearly = mind.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxii. 37. Lufa drihten … of alle hearte ðine & of alle sauele ðine & in alle ðoht ðinne [L. in tota mente tua]. Ibid., Mark v. 15. Sittende ʓecladed … & hales ðohtes [L. sane mentis].

{c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 99 He onlihte ure mod mid seofanfald ȝife, þet is mid wisdom, and angite mid iðohte, and streinde [etc.].]

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 71. We hauen on ure þoht, to shewen him ure sinnes.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 22166 (Edin.). Þai sale be studiand in þair þoȝte [ö. thouth] Queþir þate he be criste ouir nai. Ibid., 25598. Do wickednes vte of vr thoght.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Wife’s T., 227. Greet was the wo the knyght hadde in his thoght.

c. 1400.  Emare, 223. Alle hys hert & alle hys þowȝth, Her to loue was yn browght.

c. 1460.  Wisdom, 959, in Macro Plays, 67. Put yt, Lorde, in-to my thowte.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, I. 251. With hewy cheyr and sorowfull in thocht.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 45. Had he bin where he thought, By this had thought bin past.

1830.  Tennyson, Deserted House, i. Life and Thought have gone away.

1877.  E. R. Conder, Bas. Faith, i. 8. Thought, feeling, will, are the three strands of the triple cord of life.

  c.  The product of mental action or effort; what one thinks; that which is in the mind (sometimes, as expressed in language: cf. quot. 1702).

c. 1200.  Ormin, 2577. Forr hire þohht & hire word & hire weorrc wass clene.

c. 1250.  Hymn to God, 12, in Trin. Coll. Hom., 258. Þu þe wost al ure þoucht.

c. 1290.  Beket, 1183, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 140. He rounede in is wiues ere, and tolde hire al is þouȝt.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, i. (Petrus), 424. Cum furth, and say Þi thoucht and ded but delay.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xiii. 59. Oure Lord takes mare hede to thoȝt þan to word.

1560.  Bible (Genev.), Ps. cxxxix. 2. Thou vnderstandest my thoght afarre of.

1702.  Addison, Dial. Medals, i. Wks. 1721, I. 439. One … may often find as much thought on the reverse of a Medal as in a Canto of Spenser.

1732.  Pope, Hor. Sat., II. ii. 129. Thus Bethel spoke, who always speaks his thought.

1822.  ‘B. Cornwall,’ Flood Thessaly, II. 553. Those wondrous letters … By which bright thought was in its quick flight stopp’d And saved from perishing.

1865.  Tylor, Early Hist. Man., iv. 68. Thought is not even present to the thinker, till he has set it forth out of himself.

  d.  In a collective sense (with defining adj.): The intellectual activity or mental product characteristic of the thinkers of a particular class, time, or place; what is or has been thought by the philosophers or learned men of some specified country, etc.

a. 1853.  Robertson, Lect. (1858), 228. Wordsworth is the type of English thought.

1856.  N. Brit. Rev., XXVI. 39. How old is Modern Thought?—a few years only:—we think ten years—in this country, will include the time within which this peculiar tendency and feeling has distinctly shown its characteristics…. Modern Thought, regarded as the opposite and the antagonist of an unexceptive submission to the authority of Holy Scripture.

1884.  F. Temple, Relat. Relig. & Sc., v. (1885), 132. The leaders of scientific thought.

Mod.  Plato and Aristotle, the leaders of Greek thought.

  2.  (with a and pl.) A single act or product of thinking; an item of mental activity; something that one thinks or has thought; a thing that is in the mind; an idea, notion. (Sometimes, as expressed in writing: as in quots. 1645, 1709, 1875.)

c. 975.  Rushw. Gosp., Matt. ix. 4. And þa ʓescende ðohtas heora cwæþ to heom forhwon þencaþ ʓe yfel in heortum eowrum?

[c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 109. Ðan alden his to warniene wið uuele iþohtas.]

c. 1200.  Vices & Virt., 11. Oðer of ðouhtes oðer of wordes oðer of weorkes.

13[?].  Cursor M., 27101 (Cott.). Vr thoghtes ar þai be thoght … he seis.

1451.  Capgrave, Life St. Gilbert, 86. Occupied with orisones and meditaciones to avoyde euel þoutes.

1557.  N. T. (Genev.), 2 Cor. x. 5. Wherwith we … bringe into captiuitie euery thoght, to the obedience of Christe.

a. 1568.  King H. Steward, in Bann. Poems (Hunter. Cl.), 706. Gif cairfull thoftis restoir My havy hairt.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 261. Oth. Ile know thy Thoughts. Iago. You cannot, if my heart were in your hand, Nor shall not, whil’st ’tis in my custodie.

1645.  Fuller (title), Good Thoughts in Bad Times.

1709.  Pope, Ess. Crit., 354. The last … couplet fraught With some unmeaning thing they call a thought.

1754.  Gray, Progr. Poesy, III. iii. Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.

1803–6.  Wordsw., Intim. Immort., xi. Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

1824.  L. M. Hawkins, Annaline, I. 344. I will collect my scattered thoughts.

1864.  Browning, Abt Vogler, viii. One scarce can say … That he even gave it a thought.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 28. A similar thought is repeated in the Laws.

1891.  ‘J. S. Winter,’ Lumley, i. Here I’m idle and haven’t a thought in my head—there my brain positively teems with ideas.

  b.  spec. An idea suggested or recalled to the mind; a reflection, a consideration.

a. 1240.  Ureisun, in Cott. Hom., 203. Hwi ne bi-hold ich þis euer in mine heorte, and þenche ðet hit was for me … Þis þoht wolde sikerliche ontenden so soð luue on me.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., V. v. 28. Like silly Beggars, Who sitting in the Stockes, refuge their shame That many haue, and others must sit there; And in this Thought, they finde a kind of ease.

1665.  Boyle, Occas. Refl., V. v. This … is onely to tell us, what you observ’d, not what Reflections you made upon it, and … that which I was inquisitive after, was your Thoughts.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxvii. The thoughts that ye hae intervened to spare the puir thing’s life will be sweeter in that hour … than [etc.].

1835.  J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (1837), I. i. 15. Though this thought should not make a man despair to-day, yet it should ever make him tremble for to-morrow.

  c.  Second thoughts: ideas occurring subsequently; later and maturer consideration (usu. in phr. on or upon second thoughts). So first thoughts.

1642.  Chas. I., Mess. to Both Houses, 28 April, 4. Second thoughts may present somewhat to your considerations which escaped you before.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 213. Now advise Or hear what to my mind first thoughts present.

1687.  Bp. Cartwright, in Magd. Coll. (O. H. S.), 139. Are you … willing upon better and second thoughts to submit?

1711.  Hickes, Two Treat. Chr. Priesth. (1847), II. 396. I desire you to send your second thoughts and reflections upon it.

1838.  J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (1842), IV. ii. 41. It is often said that second thoughts are best; so they are in matters of judgment, but not in matters of conscience.

1864.  Tennyson, Sea Dreams, 65. Is it so true that second thoughts are best? Not first, and third, which are a riper first?

  3.  Proverbial Phrases (from 1 and 2): a. As swift as thought, etc.; so at, like, upon, or with a thought, in an instant, immediately, at once. b. Thought is free: one is at liberty to think as one will.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 94. Ase swifte ase is nu monnes þouht, & ase is þe sunne gleam.

1572.  Forrest, Theophilus, 342, in Anglia, VII. Made in vocation, And was present in manner, at a thought.

1588.  Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 261. Fleeter then arrows, bullets, wind, thought. Ibid. (1610), Temp., IV. i. 164. Come with a thought; I thank thee Ariell: come. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., IV. iv. 565. Faster then Thought, or Time.

1845.  Gosse, Ocean, iv. (1849), 168. The whole herd are gone like a thought, leaving their unhappy comrade to his fate.

1885.  C. F. Holder, Marvels Anim. Life, 230. Quick as thought the skipper hurled his weapon.

  b.  1580.  Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 281. Thought is free my Lord quoth she.

a. 1600.  [see THRALL a.¹ 1 (b)].

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., I. iii. 73.

1673.  Kirkman, Unlucky Citizen, 185. I would tell him that thought was free, and I should not tell him what I thought.

1690.  Dryden, Amphitryon, II. i. I dare say nothing, but thought is free.

  4.  In various specialized senses (from 1 and 2): cf. various senses of THINK v.²

  a.  Consideration, attention, heed, care, regard. To take thought, to consider, meditate (how to do something, etc.). In quot. 1602 implying indecision.

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 492. He ne rekþ noht of clennesse, Al his þouht is of golnesse.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 1563 (Cott.). On al thinges was mare þair thoght [G. thout] Þan was on drightin þat al wroght.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 373 (Balade). This schulde a ryghtwys lord han in his thouȝt.

1509.  Payne Evyll Marr., 125. And wyll take thought, and often muse How he myght fynde [etc.].

1567.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 519. Na persoun … takkis thocht quhat unhappy deid he sall tak upoun hand.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., II. i. 85. And thus the Natiue hew of Resolution Is sicklied o’re, with the pale cast of Thought.

1684.  Earl Roscommon, Ess. Transl. Verse, 162. Pride … Proceeds from Ignorance, and want of Thought.

1742.  Gray, Ode Eton Coll., x. Thought would destroy their paradise.

a. 1845.  Hood, Lady’s Dream, xvi. Evil is wrought by want of Thought, As well as want of Heart!

1862.  F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 109. To realize his own wretchedness, so that he may take thought how to escape from it.

  b.  Meditation, mental contemplation; † perplexity, puzzled condition of mind (quot. 1387, and cf. 5); † transf. subject of meditation (quot. c. 1300).

a. 1300.  Floriz & Bl., 34. On blauncheflur was al his þoȝt.

c. 1300.  E. E. Psalter, cxviii[i]. 97. Hou luued i, lauerd, þi lagh ai; Mi thoghte es it al þe dai.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 311. To brynge here hertes out of þouȝt þat hereþ speke of laborintus, here I telle what laborinthus is to menynge.

c. 1420.  Sir Amadace (Camden), xx. On the dede cors, that lay on bere, Ful myculle his thoȝte was on.

1611.  Sir W. Mure, Misc. Poems, ii. 13. Perceauing me in thot perplex’d.

1715.  Pope, 2nd Ep. Miss Blount, 33. In pensive thought recall the fancy’d scene.

1842.  Tennyson, Lord of Burleigh, 21. From deep thought himself he rouses.

Mod.  She was lost in thought.

  c.  Conception, imagination, fancy.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 21630 (Edin.). Mar miȝtis hauis ur lauerd wroȝt Than ani man mai þinc in thoȝt.

1413.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), III. x. 56. The grete horrour therof may not be … declared by … thought of mannes herte.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 288. Within his thought her heauenly image sits.

1602.  Marston, Ant. & Mel., I. Wks. 1856, I. 15. I long, beyond all thought, To know the man.

1671.  Milton, Samson, 117. O change beyond report, thought, or belief!

1742.  Collins, Ecl., ii. 50.

1832.  Tennyson, Miller’s Dau., 237. With blessings beyond hope or thought. Ibid. (1850), In Mem., lxx. 8. In shadowy thoroughfares of thought.

  d.  The entertaining of some project in the mind; the idea or notion of doing something, as contemplated or entertained in the mind; hence, intention, purpose, design; esp. an imperfect or half-formed intention; with negative expressed or implied = not the least intention or notion of doing something. Also in pl. as ‘to have thoughts (of).’ Cf. THINK v.² 8.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1153. Ðis maidenes deden it in god ðhoȝt.

c. 1320.  Cast. Love, 4. For nas neuere good werk wrouȝt W^t-oute biginninge of good þouȝt.

c. 1425.  Cast. Persev., 581, in Macro Plays, 94. Of worldly good is al his þouth.

1535.  Coverdale, Jer. xxix. 11. I knowe, what I haue deuysed for you…. My thoughtes are to geue you peace, & not trouble.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 220. I do begin to haue bloody thoughts.

a. 1771.  Gray, Tophet, 6. Satan’s self had thoughts of taking orders.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xlix. Knock says his Grace has no thought to buy it.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. II. 76. All thought of returning to the policy of the Triple Alliance was abandoned.

Mod.  I had some thought of going, but found I could not manage it. I had no thoughts of it then.

  e.  Remembrance, ‘mind.’ † To hold in thought, † to have thought on, to keep in mind, remember. Obs. or merged in the general sense.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6553. Of alle is proute dedes i ne may uorbere noȝt, Þat i ne mot ȝou telle of on, nou it comeþ in mi þoȝt.

13[?].  Cursor M., 24042 (Gött.). To domes-dai liue if i moght, Ne ȝode it neuer vte of mi thoght.

13[?].  Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., I. 66. Hold hem in þi þount.

c. 1400.  Gamelyn, 474. Adams wordes he held in his thoght.

c. 1475.  Rauf Coilȝear, 257. Haue gude thocht on my Name.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., IV. iv. 33. I and my Brother are not knowne; your selfe So out of thought,… Cannot be question’d.

  f.  Mental anticipation, expectation. (Now mostly with negative expressed or implied.)

a. 1307.  in Pol. Songs (Camden), 220. Tho [= when] he wes in Scotlond, lutel wes ys thoht Of the harde jugement that him wes bysoht In stounde.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. iii. 30. Flatt’ring himselfe with Proiect of a power, Much smaller, then the smallest of his Thoughts.

1611.  Bible, Ps. xlix. 11. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for euer.

1677.  Hale, Contempl., II. 127. I had thoughts to find repose there.

Mod.  I had no thought of meeting him there.

  g.  An opinion or judgment; a belief or supposition; what one thinks of or about a thing or person.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. ii. 131. Heauen forgiue them, that so much haue sway’d Your Maiesties good thoughts away from me. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., IV. i. 53. Who in your thoughts merits faire Helen most?

1613.  Webster, Devil’s Law-Case, II. i. You are false To the good thought I held of you.

1786.  Burns, Twa Dogs, 221. The Ladies arm-in-arm … As great an’ gracious a’ as sisters; But hear their absent thoughts o’ ither.

1831.  Scott, Ct. Robt., xxvii. What, then, are thy thoughts of the Emperor?

1855.  Browning, Childe Roland, i. My first thought was, he lied in every word.

  † 5.  Anxiety or distress of mind; solicitude; grief, sorrow, trouble, care, vexation. To take thought, to trouble oneself, grieve, be anxious or distressed. Obs. (exc. dial.: see Eng. Dial. Dict.).

c. 1220.  Bestiary, 682, in O. E. Misc., 22. He suggeden & sorȝeden & weren in ðoȝt, Wu he miȝten him helpen ovt.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1433. Ysaac … wunede ðor in ðoȝt and care, For moderes dead and sondes fare.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 85. Þe kyng had fulle grete þouht, his reame ageyn him ros.

c. 1425.  Cast. Persev., 292, in Macro Plays, 86. I stonde & stodye, al ful of þowth.

1485.  Caxton, Paris & V., 46. Paris kyssed Vyenne wyth grete syghes and thoughtes.

c. 1500.  Nutbrown Maid, 119, in Hazlitt, E. P. P., II. 277. To make thought, Your labur were in vayne.

1523.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccxxxiii. 324. His wyfe … toke moche thought for his departyng.

1526.  Tindale, Matt. vi. 31. Therfore take no thought saynge: what shall we eate?

1556.  Bp. Ponet, Treat. Politic Power, I iij b. Wriothesley … either poisoned himself, or pyned awaye for thought.

1608.  E. Grimstone, Hist. France (1611), 270. Valentine, Duchesse of Orleans (seeing her paines lost …) dies for thought within few daies after.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 871. Soto died of thought in Florida.

  b.  transf. A cause of distress or anxiety, a ‘trouble.’ Obs. exc. Sc. and dial.

1649.  Cromwell, in Carlyle, Lett. & Sp. (1871), II. 188. How many considerable ones we have lost, is no little thought of heart to us.

1887.  Suppl. to Jamieson, Addenda, s.v., That wild son has been a sair thocht … to his mother.

1895.  Crockett, in Cornh. Mag., Dec., 569. So mony bairn’s things were just a cumber and a thocht to me.

  6.  A very small amount, a very little, a trifle. (Usually, now always, adverbial.)

1581.  Mulcaster, Positions, xxxix. (1887), 204. The prince is a thought aboue him for all he be his brother in respect of old Adam.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, III. iv. 14. I like the new tire … if the haire were a thought browner.

1617.  Hieron, Wks., II. 207. A wound may be giuen in a thought of time, which yet may be in healing aboue a yeere.

1628.  Gaule, Pract. The. Panegyr., 49. They are not currant, if they want the least Thought of a Graine.

1727.  Swift, Lett. to Sheridan, 12 Aug. My giddiness seized me, I think I am a thought better.

1818.  Scott, Rob Roy, iv. He seems a thought rash.

1897.  G. Allen, Type-writer Girl, xvii. The champagne … was a thought too dry.

  7.  attrib. and Comb. a. attrib., as thought-accent (accent of thought), thought-box, -coop, -defect, -form, -life, -line, -manufactory, -part, -production, -seed, -shop, -sign, -system. b. objective and obj. gen., as thought-abhorring, -exceeding, -giving, -inspiring, -reviving, -shaming, -sounding, -stirring, -straining, -tracing, -transcending adjs.; thought-catcher, -conductor, -maker, -sprinkler, † -taking (see 5). c. instrumental, as thought-bewildered (bewildered by thought), thought-burdened, -fed, -laden, -pressed, -unsounded, -winged, -working, -worn; locative, as thought-bound (bound in thought), thought-fixed, -free, -set, -tinted; similative, as thought-swift; thought-worthy (worthy of thought). d. Special Combs.: thought-body (Psychics), see quot.; thought-consciousness, consciousness in the state in which it is during the process of thought; thought-counter, a current symbol of a thought; thought-executing a., (a) in quot. 1605, ‘doing execution with the swiftness of thought’ (Aldis Wright); (b) executing the thought or intention of a person; † thought-sick a., sick with ‘thought’ or thinking; thought-sign, a symbol of thought or judgment, the copula of a predication; † thought-swift-flying a., that flies as swift as thought: † thought-taking sb., the taking of thought; thought-transfer, -transference (Psychics), transference or communication of thought from one mind to another apart from the ordinary channels of sense; telepathy; thought-transfer v., trans. to convey by thought or telepathically; hence thought-transferential a., pertaining to thought-transference; thought-wave, (a) in Psychics, a ‘wave’ or undulation of a hypothetical medium of thought-transference; (b) a ‘wave’ or impulse of thought passing simultaneously through a crowd of persons or other living beings; thought-word, a word conceived in the mind but not uttered; thought-writing, the recording of thought by graphic symbols directly denoting ideas; ideography. See also THOUGHT-READING.

1835.  Woman, I. 104. An idle set, a *thought-abhorring crew.

1897.  Anwyl, Greek Gram., § 40. The *Thought-Accent is the stress or emphasis laid upon a word or syllable, in order to bring out the meaning of the sentence.

1796.  Coleridge, in J. Cottle, Early Recoll. (1837), I. 199. I wandered on so *thought-bewildered, that it is no wonder I became way-bewildered.

1893.  H. R. Haweis in Fortn. Rev., Jan., 121–2. Assume that there is something personal about us able to manifest and arrange matter, and thus assert itself after death … suppose we call that something our *thought-body…. Consider then the evidence; first, for the thought-body as Double, and second, for the thought-body as Ghost.

1886.  Tupper, My Life as Author, 145. The emptying out of my *thought-box…, a most necessary relief.

1892.  Symonds, Michel Angelo, II. XII. viii. 31. This terrible *thought-burdened form.

1584.  Lyly, Campaspe, V. iv. I am no *thought catcher, but I gesse vnhappily.

1889.  Sir W. F. Butler, C. G. Gordon, vii. (1899), 188. This lightning *thought-conductor [the electric telegraph] had been used to disseminate lies and foster gambling in stocks or horses.

1901.  E. B. Titchener, Exper. Psychol., I. i. 1. A *thought-consciousness, our mind as it is when we are arguing something out.

1870.  Lowell, Study Wind. (1886), 309. His importation of the French theory of the couplet as a kind of *thought-coop did nothing but mischief.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 423. The auditory and visual images of words which constitute our habitual *thought-counters.

1637.  Nabbes, Microcosm., I. B iv b. Dispute not … your owne *thought-defects.

1593.  Nashe, Christ’s T., Wks. (Grosart), IV. 61. *Thought-exceeding glorification.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, III. ii. 4. You Sulph’rous and *Thought-executing Fires.

1819.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. i. 387. Trampled down By his thought-executing ministers.

1874.  Geo. Eliot, Coll. Breakf. P., 472. The thrill … Of *thought-fed passion.

1773.  Beattie, Tri. Melancholy, lii. The *thought-fix’d portraiture, the breathing bust.

1892.  Month, Jan., 10. The *Thought-forms with which he has surrounded himself.

1626.  Shirley, Brothers, V. iii. To clear myself *thought-free From any promise.

1729.  Savage, Wanderer, III. 167. *Thought-inspiring Woe.

a. 1847.  Eliza Cook, Summer is Nigh, iv. My *thought-laden brow.

1884.  J. Parker, Apostolic Life, III. 267. The writing … is a kind of body in which his *thought-life lives for ever.

1909.  J. Wells, Stewart of Lovedale, xxxiv. 371. His strenuous life had deepened the *thought-lines on his strong face.

1855.  Pict. Chr. Heroism, 244. Pictures of the *thought-maker at his work.

1860.  Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. VIII. i. § 14. 164. From the time of the Aristophanes thought-shop to the great German establishment, or *thought-manufactory.

1796.  T. Townshend, Poems, 69. The musing *thought-prest head.

1884.  J. Tait, Mind in Matter (1892), 114. Tunnelling out a theory of *thought-production.

1825.  D. L. Richardson, Sonn., 24. A calm and *thought-reviving sound.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, xx. (1848), 245. He would his brain had died ere it conceived One half the *thought-seeds that took life in it.

1813.  Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 225. Still his *thought-set eye was raised To Ettrick mountains.

1605.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. I. Abraham, 373. Your *thought-shaming acts.

1598.  J. Dickenson, Greene in Conc. (1878), 109. *Thought-sicke louers haue onely reason their soueraigne refuge.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., III. iv. 51.

1854.  S. Neil, Elem. Rhet., 34. The *thought-sign is, also possesses its own specific signification.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. IV. Handicrafts, 304. Reinsearching God, *thought-sounding Judge.

a. 1774.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 506. *Thought-straining fervours of prayer and devotion.

1595.  Markham, Sir R. Grinvile, xiv. In that same myd-daies hower came sayling in A *thought-swift-flying pynnase.

1900.  Month, Sept., 236. The Church has used … whatever other *thought-system she has found in vogue.

1615.  Hieron, Wks., I. 661. Exercised with a world of cares and *thought-takings.

1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., II. viii. 201. Anxiety, Discontent, thought-taking, dump, trouble, anguish.

a. 1845.  Hood, Two Peacocks, xv. As if *thought-tinted by the stains Of gorgeous light through many-colour’d panes.

1791.  Cowper, Yardley Oak, 158. The *thought-tracing quill.

a. 1711.  Ken, Hymnarium, Poet. Wks. 1721, II. 101. O Great I am, enthron’d on high, Of *Thought-transcending Majesty.

1898.  Month, Sept., 232. Other perplexing instances are tortured into cases of *thought-transfer.

1901.  Westm. Gaz., 8 Jan., 4/2. The Psychic has only got to thought-transfer his desire for telescopic verification.

1884.  E. Gurney, in Pall Mall G., 29 May, 2/2. Our conclusion as to genuine *thought-transference.

1886.  Myers, Phantasms Living, I. Introd. 43. It was thus … that thought-transference, or telepathy, was first discovered.

1905.  A. R. Wallace, My Life, II. 310. Thought, or brain-vibrations, may be carried by the ether to other brains, and thus produce thought-transference.

1890.  O. Lodge, in Proc. Soc. Psych. Research, Dec., 461. The hypothesis of a direct *thought-transferential means of obtaining information.

1878.  Swinburne, In the Bay, xxxix. The *thought-unsounded sea.

1891.  Cent. Dict., *Thought-wave.

1901.  Daily Chron., 18 Sept., 3/2. The Greek idea of a thought-wave, or wind of thought, sweeping through crowds.

1818.  Shelley, Lines Eugarean Hills, 207. The sun floats up the sky, Like *thought-winged Liberty.

1889.  Mivart, Orig. Hum. Reason, 106. Expressing a voluminous perception by a sudden gesture far too rapid even for *thought-words.

1906.  Hibbert Jrnl., Jan., 277. The doctrine of the Logos, the Thought-Word in the Cosmos.

1816.  L. Hunt, Rimini, iv. 88. His *thought-working head.

1846.  Mrs. Gore, Eng. Char. (1852), 127. Sparing and *thought-worn, there is nothing in his gravity of brow to encourage indiscreet encroachment.

1859.  Lever, Davenport Dunn, ii. Thoughts of what alone is thought-worthy.

1890.  Smithsonian Rep., 50. The monographs on sign language and pictography, having as their text the attainments of the North American Indians … may contribute to the understanding of similar exhibitions of evanescent and durable *thought-writing.

  Hence (chiefly nonce-wds.) † Thoughtive a., addicted to or engaged in thought, thoughtful; Thoughtkin, Thoughtlet, Thoughtling, a small or insignificant thought; Thoughtsman (nonce-wd., after draughtsman, etc.): see quot.

1654.  Gayton, Pleas. Notes, I. ii. 5. If he be *thoughtive or cogitabund,… his lips, his eyes, his hands, goe as well as his legs. Ibid., IV. iii. 187. The Don is indeed a more thoughtive, inward, close, and conceal’d Cocksome.

1867.  Carlyle, Remin. (1881), II. 148. That little *thoughtkin stands in some of my books.

1858.  H. W. Beecher, Life Th. (1859), 74. Mosses and inconspicuous blooms hidden in the grass—*thoughtlets, the intents of the heart.

1863.  Reader, 22 Aug. Mere vendors of what may be called carefully-connected thoughtlets.

1832.  J. P. Kennedy, Swallow B., x. A little nest of *thoughtlings about the eyes.

1842.  Miall, Non-conf. Sketch-bk., 255. One whom we shall venture to designate a *thoughtsman for the rest … whose … business it shall be … to make himself … acquainted with truth … for the common benefit.