a., adv., and sb. [OE. þúsendfeald: see THOUSAND and -FOLD.]
A. adj. One thousand times as much or many; consisting of a thousand parts; a thousand times repeated or multiplied.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 576. Salomon … ʓeoffrode him … þusendfealde onsæʓednyssa æt anre offrunge.
a. 1023. Wulfstan, Hom., xlvii. (Napier), 243. Ðæt þusendfeald ʓetæl is fulfremed.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 191. Mid þusendfeld wrenches he þe herte to-wendeð.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, i. How such light will then shine out, and with wondrous thousandfold expansion spread itself.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-Bks. (1872), I. 45. This bustle and babble; this thousand-fold talk.
B. adv. A thousand times (in amount); a thousand times as much. (Usually a thousandfold.)
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 2323. Þæt þing … schal arisen, þurh þæt fal, a þusentfalt te fehere … to lif undeðlich.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, I. 819. A guerdoun … A þowsand folde more þan he kan deserue.
a. 1500[?]. Chester Pl., i. 144. Brighter then god a thowsand fould.
1586. A. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 86. Thou hast … heaped mischiefe a thousandfold to thy selfe.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life, II. i. § 3. Our sincere Compliance with the immutable Obligations of Piety and Vertue, is a Thousandfold more acceptable to God, than [etc.].
1872. Morley, Voltaire, i. (1886), 10. The sacrifice may repay itself a thousand-fold.
† b. A thousand times (in succession). rare–1.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xlix. 37. War the fox tane a thousand fawd, And grace him gevin als oft for frawd.
C. sb. A thousand times the amount or number.
a. 1711. Ken, Sion, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 370. The Son ador’d and nurs’d by the sweet Maid, A thousand-fold of Love for Love repaid.
Hence Thousandfoldly adv. = B. rare–1.
1829. Coleridge, Improvisatore, Poems, II. 130. In the person of a thousand-foldly endeared partner.
