a. and sb. Now dial. Also 6 trynter, thrwnter, thrwenter, 9 thrunter (Sc. fronter, frunter). [In OE. þri-winter, three-winter., three-year-; but the word may have been formed anew in 16th c., after TWINTER.] a. adj. Of three winters; three years old: said of cattle and sheep. b. sb. A sheep or bovine animal of three years or winters (now applied only to sheep).

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[c. 1000.  Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 117/20. Trimus, uel triennis, uel trimulus, ðri-winter.]

2

1536.  Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 419. 4 Trynters, 7 Twynters,… 20 Dynmontes, 23 Hogges.

3

1570.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), I. 341. Fyue thrwnter stotts at vl xiijs iiij d—iij thrwenter whyes at iiijl.

4

1577.  in Hist. Soc. Lanc. & Chesh., LV–LVI. 27. Item. One other cowe…. Item two thrinters.

5

1890.  Cornh. Mag., Oct., 382. One of our thrunters, or three-winter-old ewes.

6

a. 1898.  J. Shaw, in R. Wallace, Country Schoolmaster (1899), 339. ‘Twinters’ and ‘th[r]inters,’ sic like names for sheep.

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