Forms: see next. [a. OF. treble, sb. use of TREBLE a.]
I. 1. Anything threefold; a sum or quantity three times as great as another; the product of a sum or magnitude multiplied by three.
[1324–5. Rolls of Parlt., I. 416/1. Que amounteront a treble & quatreble de lour coustages.]
c. 1430. Art of Nombryng xi. (E.E.T.S.), 17. Thow most trebille the digit, and that triplat is to be put vnder the 3[rd] next figure towarde the right honde, And the vnder-trebille vnder the trebille.
1463. Rolls of Parlt., V. 502/2. Forfeiture … of the treble of his seid wages. Ibid. (1475), VI. 121/2. Uppon peyn of forfeiture of the treble of somoche as he so hath receyved or taken.
1799. Wilson, in Phil. Trans., LXXXIX. 302. The equation of the halves, or quarters, or doubles, trebles, &c. of those functions.
2. In technical and elliptical uses. a. A triple barrier; an obstacle consisting of three successive fences.
1569. Stocker, trans. Diod. Sic., III. xi. 120/2. Hys Campe which he with a treble of wood and earth fortified.
1895. Daily News, 16 May, 7/5. The fences now introduced, however, are of high gorse. On one side of the ring these are arranged in a ‘treble,’ just far enough apart to give room between for a horse to pull himself together for each effort in succession.
b. Paper-making and Printing. A frame on which hand-made paper or printed sheets are hung to dry.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Paper, Carried up into the loft, and hung six or seven sheets together upon lines fastened to a thing called a Tribble, each tribble containing thirty lines ten or twelve foot long.
1766. C. Leadbetter, Royal Gauger, II. xiv. (ed. 6), 371. The Sheets of Paper, taken from between the Felts, are laid one upon the other till the next Day and then are hung up, on Lines called Trebles, in the Drying-House.
1896. Daily News, 23 March, 8/4. If time be no object, the sheets are hung on ‘trebles’ (the towel-horse is the domestic equivalent) in an ordinary room.
c. A kind of step-dance; the measure of or music for this. dial.
1805. G. McIndoe, Poems, 18. We’ll sen’ for fiddling Alic, and the piper he’ll play treple.
1895. D. D. Dixon, Whittingham Vale, v. 67. A variety of step-dancing such as the ‘treble,’ the single and double ‘shuffle,’ the ‘cut’ [etc.].
d. Whist. A game (at short whist) in which one side scores five and the other none, counting three points to the winners.
1870. Hardy & Ware, Mod. Hoyle, 30. If one side scores five while the adversaries have made not one point, the winning side makes a treble.
1876. A. C. Walker, Correct Card (1880), Gloss., Treble, scoring five before your adversary scores one.
e. pl. A quality or grade of small coal.
1901. Scotsman, 15 Oct., 4/8. There are four bush washers … one for trebles.
f. A method of crocheting in which three loops of thread are carried on the hook; also a line or chain of crochet work done by this method.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 127/2. s.v. Crochet, Treble Stitch, Raised.—Work three rows of Ribbed Stitch. Fourth row—work 2 Ribbed Stitches, and make a Treble for next, putting the hook into the stitch underneath it of the first row, work 2 Trebles in this way [etc.].
c. 1900. Therèse de Dillmont, Encycl. Needlework, Crochet, 304. Trebles are little columns or bars made of loops or stitches…. They are of different kinds; the half or short treble, the plain or ordinary treble [etc.].
3. One of three things or persons that are exact counterparts. nonce-use after DOUBLE sb. 2 b.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 29 June, 1/2. There are many ‘doubles’ in the House of Commons. There seem … to be in that assembly at least two groups of trebles.
II. 4. Music. The highest part in harmonized musical composition; the soprano part. Cf. TREBLE a. 2. [The musical use is supposed to have arisen from the fact that in early contrapuntal music the chief melody or cantus firmus was given to the tenor (TENOR sb. 4 a), the voice parts added above being the discantus or alto, and the treble (? third part) or soprano; but the history is somewhat obscure, esp. as triplex, triplus meant ‘threefold’ and not ‘third,’ and in OF. treble was applied to a trio.]
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 11263. Þo clerkes þat best couþe synge, Wyþ treble, mene, & burdoun.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 54. Thi [nasal] organys so hihe begynne to syng ther messe, With treble meene and tenor discordyng as I gesse.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxii. 19. All to small To sic ane tribbill to hald ane bace.
1567. Trial Treas., B iv. I will sing the trouble with all my harte.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 109. In one of the lower Strings of a Lute, there soundeth not the Sound of the Treble,… but only the Sound of the Base.
1782. Burney, Hist. Music (1789), II. v. 456. The third and Triplum the highest or treble, of which term this was the origin.
1884. H. C. Deacon, in Grove, Dict. Mus., IV. 165. Tréble has been said to be a corruption of Triplum, a third part superadded to the Altus and Bassus.
fig. 1532. More, Confut. Tindale, II. i. 95. His false translacyon wyth theyr farther false construccion, they thought sholde be the basse and the tenour wheruppon they wold synge the trouble wyth mych false descant.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 112. The grasiers trade the treble and the tillers occupation the base.
1638–56. Cowley, Davideis, I. 458. Water and Air he for the Tenor chose, Earth made the Base, the Treble Flame arose.
1892. Daily News, 16 Sept., 3/3. The dark tone of the ground … acts as bass to the treble of the silk.
5. A treble voice; also, a singer having a treble voice; one who sings the treble part.
c. 1475[?]. Sqr. lowe Degre, 782. Than shall ye go to your evensong, With tenours and trebles among.
1658. Marvell, Poems, Music’s Empire, 10. And Virgin Trebles wed the manly Base.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), I. 7. The ravishing trebles delight every ear.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., IV. i. 254. Two celebrated trebles;… who occasionally made twenty shillings a day by ballad-singing.
b. transf. A high-pitched or shrill voice, sound, or note.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 262. His bigge manly voice, Turning againe toward childish trebble, pipes And whistles in his sound.
1647. H. More, Poems, Cupid’s Conflict, vi. How well agreed the Brooks low muttering Base, With the birds trebbles.
1827. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. iii. ‘So please your Serene Highness, I am here!’ answered a very thin treble.
1855. Tennyson, Brook, 40. I chatter over stony ways, In little sharps and trebles.
6. The string of treble pitch in a musical instrument; also, the chanter of a bagpipe.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 186. Which string … wouldst thou … harpe on? Not the base…, Nor the treble.
1623. Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test., Ded. xxxviii. What sports they now deuise With Treble and Drone, and Bonfiers, and Bels.
1682. Dryden, MacFl., 46. At thy well-sharpened thumb,… The treble squeaks for fear, the basses roar.
† 7. A musical instrument of treble pitch, as a violin. Obs.
1634. MS. Archd. Oxon, Berks., c. 74, lf. 230. He plaied uppon a trebble in the house of Francis Iennings uppon a Sondaie.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 62. People … presently phansi’d the Moon, Mercury, and Venus to be a kind of violins or trebles to Jupiter and Saturn.
1710. in E. W. Dunbar, Soc. Life in Moray (1865), 15. I can … play on the Treble and Gambo, Viol, [etc.].
b. = treble bell: see TREBLE a. 2 b.
1598–9. in Swayne, Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896), 147. ij newe gudgins for ye Treble and nailes, 3s. 6d. Ibid. (1652–3), 227. The Sexton shall ring the Treable at 5 a Clocke in the Morning.
a. 1658. Ford, etc., Witch Edmonton, II. i. Double Bells!… Trebles: buy me Trebles, all Trebles: for our purpose is to be in the Altitudes.
8. attrib. and Comb., as treble bob: BOB sb.5; treble-ringer, the ringer of the treble bell in a peal.
1872. Treble bob royal [see BOB sb.5].
1899. Westm. Gaz., 31 Oct., 10/1. For sixty-seven years … Bunce was the treble ringer.
