| 释义 |
three, a. and n.|θriː|
Forms: see below.
[OE. þrí (þríe), þrío, þréo, Com. Teut. and Indo-Eur.; = OFris. thre m., thria f., thriu, thria n.; OS. thrie (thria, threa) m., threa f., thrua (thriu, thria) n. (MLG., LG. drê, dru n., MDu., Du. drie); OHG. drî, drio, driu (MHG. drî(e, Ger. drei); ON. þrír, þrjár, þrjú (Norw., Sw., Da. tre); Goth. *þreis, þrija;:—OTeut. *þrîz (:—*þrijiz), *þrijā:—Indo-Eur. treies, treja. Cf. Skr. trayas, Zend θri, Gr. τρεῖς, τρία, L. trēs, tria, Lith. trýs, OSlav. trije, trije, Irish and Welsh tri. The masc. has the form of a plural -i stem.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
(α) nom. and acc. 1 masc. þrí, þríe, þrý (þréo), fem. and neut. þrío, þréo, (old north. ðríu, ðría, ðréa); 2–4 þreo, 1–5 þre, (2 þru (? ü), 2–3 þri, þro, 2–4 þrie), 4 þree, (tre), 4–6 thre (6 threy, thrie), 5– three.
803Charter Cuðred in O.E.T. 442 Þisses londes earan ðrie sulong. c825Vesp. Hymns v. (O.E.T. 405), Ðreo foeðan [ternos statores]. c891O.E. Chron. an. 891, Þrie Scottas comon. c950Lindisf. Gosp. Mark viii. 2 Ðrio doᵹor ᵹe-abidas mec. Ibid. ix. 5 Ðrea [c 975 Rushw. ðria] husa. Ibid. Luke xi. 5 Sel me ðreo [Rushw. ðria] hlafas. 971Blickl. Hom. 145 Þa þre fæmnan. c1000ælfric Gen. xl. 12 Þa þreo clystru þæt sind..þri daᵹas. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xii. 40 Þry daᵹas and þreo niht. 11..Sax. Leechd. III. 134 Leᵹe þarto þru dæᵹes & þre niht. a1175Cott. Hom. 237 Þri ampres were an mancyn. c1175Lamb. Hom. 73 Þro þing boð þet ech Mon habbe mot. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 3 On þesse þre wuken. Ibid. 27 Þese þrie þing. c1205Lay. 53 Þa þre boc. Ibid. 391 He ȝef Assaracun..þreo [c 1275 þre] castles. c1275Ibid. 16589 Þreo daȝes and þreo niht. 13..Cursor M. 5469 (Cott.) Þar of tre yeir was him wan. Ibid. 9192 (Gött.) Þat was vmgang jornays thrie. 1340Ayenb. 88 Þe þri greteste guodes. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 20 Þreo [1377 B. Þree, 1393 C. Þre] þinges. 1483Cath. Angl. 385/1 Three, tres & tria. 1552–3Inv. Ch. Goods Staffs. in Ann. Lichfield (1863) IV. 46 Stoles & fannes for threy vestiments. 1596Thrie [see B. I. 3]. 1600in Shaks. Cent. Praise (Shaks. Soc.) 36 The L. montegle with some thre more.
(β) dat., 1 þrim, þrym, þriim, þrém, 1–3 þréom (3 þrom); gen., 1 þríora, þréora.
c893K. ælfred Oros. Contents iv. vi, On þriora consula dæᵹe. Ibid. iii. ix. §5 On ðæm þrim ᵹearum..on þrim folc ᵹefeohtum. c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xxvi. 61 æfter ðrim [c 1000 Ags. Gosp. þrym; c 1160Hatt. Gosp. þrem] daᵹum. Ibid. Mark xv. 29 On ðriim daᵹum. c1000Ags. Gosp. John ii. 6 ælc wæs on tweᵹra sestra ᵹemete oððe on þreora. c1100O.E. Chron. an. 1078, Þreom nihton ær Candelmæssan. c1205Lay. 8059 Þas dæies æn þreom [c 1275 a þreo] wiken. Ibid. 10034 Wið innen þan þrom ȝeren.
B. Signification.
The cardinal number next above two, represented by the symbols 3, III, or iii. I. as adj.
1. a. In concord with a n. expressed.
803–c 1000 [see A]. c1175Lamb. Hom. 11 Nu weren þas þreo laȝe ȝe-writen inne þa oðre table breode sunderlipes. c1250Gen. & Ex. 557 Noe and hise ðre sunen. a1300Cursor M. 182 Fiue thossand men..he Fedd wyt fiue laues and fisses thre. c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 1801 Of thre conclusions moot I cheese one: Or begge, or stele, or sterue. c1460Wisdom 293 in Macro Plays 45 Ye haue iij enmyes:..The worlde, þe flesche, & þe fende. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 1 This treatyse..is..diuyded in to thre bokes. 1753Challoner Cath. Chr. Instr. 2 The three Divine Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. 1775Sheridan Rivals iv. ii, Like Cerberus, three Gentlemen at once. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) I. xii. 358 Rocksalt cleaves in three directions.
b. Standing alone as predicate, or in concord with and following a pronoun, or pronominal adj.
c1050Charter of Eadwine in Kemble Cod. Dipl. IV. 260 Ðise write sinden þre. c1200Ormin 18657, & tohh þeȝȝ sinndenn alle þre An Godd. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. ix. 100 As þei þreo assenten. 13..Pol. Rel. & L. Poems 228 Reuthþe and treuthþe and charite, Beþ out of lond alle þreo. c1470Golagros & Gaw. 400 Our souerane Arthour..Has maid ws thre as mediatour. a1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV 199 b, Wee were all three one mannes sonnes. 1678Dryden & Lee Œdipus iii. i, Tir[esias]... By the Fates that spun thy thread! Cho[rus]. Which are three. 1845Browning How they brought the Good News 2, I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three.
c. Forming compound numerals with multiples of ten; originally placed first, as three and thirty (rarely thirty and three), now usually thirty-three. So also three and thirtieth (arch.: now thirty-third), etc.
c1000ælfric Exod. xxxii. 28 Þreo and twentiᵹ þusendra manna. c1205Lay. 3870 Þer of he wes lauerd þro and þritti wintere. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 340 Aboute þree and þritti ȝeer. c1470Golagros & Gaw. 247 The roy rekinnit on raw Thretty and thre. 1579Fulke Heskins' Parl. 204 The three and twentieth Chapter endeth the exposition. 1588Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 301 So they departed..and the three and twentie day of Ianuarie. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 168 A true oriental pearl..I sold it for three-and-fifty pounds.
d. Followed by dozen, score, and by hundred, thousand, etc., or the ordinals of these.
971Blickl. Hom. 75 To þrim hunde peneᵹa. a1123O.E. Chron. an. 1101, Rotbert..sceolde..þreo þusend marc seolfres habban. c1220Bestiary 616 Ðre hundred ȝer. 1388–[see threescore]. c1475Rauf Coilȝear 757 Ilk ȝeir thre hundreth pund assigne the I sall. 1483Cath. Angl. 385/1 Threhundrethe, tricentesimus. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 205 Seuenty Temples, in one of which are set three thousand three hundred thirty three gilded Idols. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 583 With about..a three-thousandth part of arsenic. Mod. I can find room for three dozen begonias.
e. three fourths: three out of four equal parts or portions into which a whole is or may be divided; three quarters. Often loosely or hyperbolically, the greater part, most of.
1600Holland Livy viii. ii. 289 Two acres in the Latine countrie, with a supplement of three foure parts out of the Privernates land to make up the whole. 1777Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) III. 279 About three-fourths..of it belongs to the holder of the grant. 1779Mirror No. 23 ⁋5 He was called a good-hearted man by three-fourths of his acquaintance. 1849D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855) 28 They do not get perfectly feathered till they are three fourths grown. 1866Froude in Sir H. Brackenbury Some Mem. My Spare Time (1909) 41 The sailor's rule for grog—three-fourths spirit and all the water you add spoils it—applies pre-eminently to writing on practical questions. 1890Anthony's Photogr. Bull. III. 200 A block of wood has a three-fourth inch hole bored in it.
† f. Rarely used for the ordinal third. Obs.
1521in Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 4 Witnesses, Rober Gibson..and many other, the three daye of Auguste. 1598Shakes. Merry W. i. i. 142 The three party is..mine Host of the Garter.
g. In special collocations. problem of three bodies (Dynamics): the problem of ascertaining the movements of three particles attracting one another under the law of gravitation (as yet only approximately solved for special cases). three acres and a cow: regarded as the requirement for self-sufficiency. three ages (Archæol.), the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages (see also three-age, sense III. 1 a below). the Three Bishoprics (Hist.), Metz, Toul, and Verdun. the three chapters (Ch. Hist.), the writings, etc., condemned by an edict of Justinian issued 544 a.d.: see quot. three cheers, three successive cheers in unison, freq. for someone or something. three musketeers, [tr. Fr. les trois mousquetaires (title of a novel (1844) by Alexandre Dumas père] three close associates. † the three tongues, the three inscribed on the Cross, and primarily requisite to the theologian, viz. Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. † three trees, the gallows. three vowels (slang), an IOU. the three wise men = the three Kings s.v. king n. 1 c; transf., three men who act as advisers or arbitrators.
See also three († blue, golden) balls (ball n.1 20); the three (Holy) Children (child n. 2 b); three faces under a (one) hood (face n. 1 d); the three kings (king n. 1 c); the three Persons (person n. 7); three sheets in the wind (sheet); the three sisters (sister n. 4 b); three sticks (stick n.).
1885J. Chamberlain in Times 17 Nov. 10/2 This man..reported..that wherever the labourer had land and kept a cow—‘*three acres and a cow’ (loud laughter)..the poor rates were reduced. 1889G. N. Curzon Russia in Central Asia vii. 239 The majority of residents would seem to have attained the ideal of Arcadian bliss expressed elsewhere in the historical phrase, ‘Three acres and a cow’. 1964English Studies XLV. (Suppl.) 214 Chesterton the Distributist and advocate of ‘three acres and a cow’.
1866J. Crawfurd in Trans. Ethnol. Soc. London IV. 1 The theory which supposes three different ages of civilisation, marked respectively by the use of arms and implements of stone, of bronze, and of iron, seems to have originated in the discoveries recently made by the examination of the refuse heaps of Denmark and the pile buildings of the Swiss lakes... There can be little doubt but that the *three ages above indicated did really exist. 1944V. G. Childe Progress & Archæol. i. 5 Of course Thomsen's three ‘Ages’ are just periods of this relative kind and would be better designated Stages.
1794A. Young Trav. France II. xix. 420 The provinces of Loraine, Alsace, the *three Bishoprics, and the West Indies, not included. 1910H. N. Williams Henri II xxi. 271 The princes..authorised him to take possession of the towns of Toul, Metz and Verdun—the ‘Three Bishoprics’. 1964C. Duffy Wild Goose & Eagle viii. 111 Conti..might be tempted to harry the Three Bishoprics and the Austrian-garrisoned Duchy of Luxemburg.
1816Playfair Nat. Phil. II. 263 Mayer has also sought to determine the Sun's parallax from one of the lunar equations, as deduced from the solution of the problem of the *three bodies. 1858Cayley Math. Papers III. 97 The problem of three or more bodies is considered by Sir W. R. Hamilton in his two..memoirs on a general method in Dynamics, Phil. Trans. 1834 and 1835.
1885Cath. Dict. s.v. Three Chapters, The condemnation of the *three chapters means the condemnation of (1) Theodore of Mopsuestia, his person, and his writings, (2) of Theodoret's writings against Cyril and the Ephesine Council, (3) of a letter from Ibas to Maris the Persian, also against Cyril and the Council.
1751*Three chears [see cheer n. 8]. 1840Brother Jonathan 10 Oct. 4/6 They gave him three cheers. 1907G. B. Shaw John Bull's Other Island ii. 30 Three cheers for ould Ireland, is it? 1970G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard vi. 174 Three cheers for any good publicity we can get.
1887Kipling in Civil & Mil. Gaz. 11 Mar. (title) The *three musketeers. 1903G. B. Shaw Man & Superman p. xxviii, He and I and Mr Sidney Webb were sowing our political wild oats as a sort of Fabian Three Musketeers. 1923Three musketeers [see blow v.1 1 b]. 1979Nature 8 Nov. 136/2 Those were the three musketeers who soon agreed that in publishing their joint work they would always share the credit for all ideas, whoever had thought them up.
1582Allen Martyrd. Campion (1908) 36 He was also very skilful in the *three tongues.
1561T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer ii. (1577) M iij, To play your Comedye yee shall neede..as much wood as is in Sclauonia..and for preparation of the Tragedie *three trees is enough. 1582Breton Toyes Idle Head (Grosart) 28/2 For commonly, such knaues as these Doe ende their lyves vpon three trees.
1822Scott Nigel xvii, The captain, who was in the habit..of paying his losses with *three vowels.
1867Chambers's Encycl. IX. 419/2 The visit of the three magi or *wise men of the East. 1904Three wise men [used s.v. Magus 2]. 1961Ann. Reg. 1960 467 The conference decided that three wise men (who later became four) should recommend the best means of co-ordinating Western economic policies. 1976Hansard Commons 9 June 1578 The three wise men..who make up the Programme Complaints Commission. 1979G. St. Aubyn Edward VII iv. 185 The Prince of Wales decided..to submit the negotiations to the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor and Lord Hartington... These three wise men produced a memorandum.
h. With letters of the alphabet, as the three B's, the three C's, the three H's, etc., referring to alliterative collocations.
See also the three F's (F III. 2); the three L's (L 7); the three R's (R II. 2 b).
1909J. R. Ware Passing Eng. 244/2 *Three B's, the (Clerical), bright, brief, and brotherly—the modern protest against the sleepy nature of a majority of the 19th century church services. 1934Webster s.v., Three B's, Music, the three great composers, Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. 1969Three B's [see off adj. 4].
1885*Three C's [see C I. 1]. 1976Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune 29 June 3/3 Q. In money matters, what's meant by ‘The Three Cs'? A. That's a term used by the credit experts. Capital, capacity to pay and collectibility. Of the three, capacity to pay is generally thought to be the most important, capital the least.
1974P. Wright Lang. Brit. Industry xii. 105 Alliteration, slang and a desire to hide the meaning all contribute to the *three Hs, standing for ‘high, hot, and a hell of a lot’, and used when a soft soap and water enema has to be applied.
1976Guardian Weekly 10 Oct. 12/4 Women's groups rebelling against the old commandment of the ‘*Three Ks’—Kinder, Kirche, Küche (children, church and kitchen).
1938J. Daniels Southerner 136 It was impressive how directly the town's merchants made their appeal to poverty with the heavy necessities of living—the *three M's, meat, meal and molasses.
1955D. W. Maurer in Publ. Amer. Dialect Soc. xxiv. 187 Excuses for missing meets are sometimes delicately referred to as the *three esses: shit, shave, and shine. 1929F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 140 Three Ss, The. The old naval rule to promotion, to mind your three Ss. That is to say, to be Sober, Silly and Civil.
2. Used vaguely for a small or trifling number; a few. So three or four. Cf. Two or three.
1534More Comf. agst. Trib. iii. Wks. 1247/2 So very a childishe fantasy, that in a matter almost of three chippes..neuer should mooue any man. 1596Harington Apol. Ajax (1814) 39 After they have roved three or four idle wordes. 1638R. Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. II 39 If they have but three words of latin. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Man of Many Fr. I. 182 But as to his anger..I don't care three of his sugar-loaves. 1842Borrow Bible in Spain xli. (Pelh. Libr.) 283, I but said three words to the alcayde of the prison.
3. Absolutely or with ellipsis of n. (most often persons; otherwise to be supplied from context).
More specifically, short for three years (of age); three tines (of a stag's horns); also for three pounds, shillings, pence, farthings, inches, etc., as three ten = {pstlg}3. 10; three and three = 3s. 3d.; one and eleven-three = 1s. 113/4d.; three foot three = 3 ft. 3 in.
1382Wyclif Matt. xviii. 20 For where two or three shulen be gedrid in my name, ther am I in the midil of hem. 1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy iv. 4640 Þis þre han made a suggestioun Vn-to þe kyng touchynge þe trete. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon xvi. 377 The other thre he broughte to the dongeon. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. (S.T.S) I. 13 Fresche water lochis..; that abundes in mony kyndes of fische, cheiflie in thrie, Killine, Skait, and Makrell. 1675Essex Papers (Camden) I. 319 That Trear. had lately procured from King thirteen thousand pounds for Essex, of which Trear. was to have three for himselfe. 1683J. Mason Spir. Songs xxiii. iv, The Three, when Christ did make the Fourth, Found Fire as meek as Air. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 131/2 Hares, 2 a Brase, 3 a Lease. Mod. Which three do you choose? Any three you please.
c1425Seven Sag. (P.) 55 Er ther passe thre and fyve, Yf he have wyt and his on lyve. 1840Thackeray Barber Cox Jan., Sold in pots at two-and-three, and three-and-nine. 1872H. Kingsley Hornby Mills, etc. II. 40 ‘How much money have you got, my lord?’..‘Three-and-sixpence’. 1884Jefferies Red Deer iv. 69 At the upper end the antler divides into three points, called three on top. 1906C. Mansfield Girl & Gods v, You told me yesterday you could not afford a pug bitch you wanted, and she was only three ten. 1909Lady's Realm Mar. 554/2 The chubby, dirty-faced child of three. 1913J. Vaizey College Girl ii. xxvi. 360, I paid eleven-three for it. 1947Vogue Apr. 73/1 Three-and-eleven-three is much less than four shillings. 1962M. Duffy That's how it Was iii. 33 The girls would buy a few yards of stuff at two-and-eleven, three, a yard. 1965Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics Spring 121 A three-by-five card was made out for each address. 1978W. Stovall Presidential Emergency v. 119 Solving his problems on three-by-five index cards.
II. n. (With plural threes.)
1. a. The abstract number.
c1200Ormin 11266 Ȝiff þu sammnesst þreo till þreo Þa findesst tu þær sexe. a1300Cursor M. 21747 O four and thre qua tels euen He sal þe numbre mak o seuen. 1387–8T. Usk Test. Love iii. i. (Skeat) l. 3 Among all nombres thre is determined for moste certain. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 495 By Ioue, I alwaies tooke three threes for nine. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxix. §7 Three, being the mysticall number of Gods unsearchable perfection within himselfe. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Passion & Princ. vi. III. 53 It would be..useless..to expatiate upon the qualities attributable to the number Three, or quote the Graces, the Fates [etc.].
b. The figure (3) denoting this number. Also, a figure resembling that denoting the number three, esp. in Skating.
1895Outing (U.S.) XXVII. 204/1 Granted control of the outside and inside edges, and the many eights, threes, loops, etc. are simplified at once. 1903[see grape-vine 2 c]. 1938J. Cary Castle Corner 378 He cut a three. 1975Oxf. Compan. Sports & Games 522/1 The three, a two-lobed figure, so named because the turn involved at the extreme end of each circle leaves a tracing on the ice resembling the numeral ‘3’.
2. A group or set of three things or persons. spec.
a. A card, a domino, or the side of a die marked with three pips or spots. † three, two, and ace: name of an old card game.
b. Cricket. A hit for which three runs are obtained.
c1540J. Heywood Four P.P. E ij, Take thre of the yongest and thre of the eldest... And when all these threes be had a sunder, Of eche three, two..Shall be founde shrewes. 1578Timme Caluine on Gen. 196 By seven and seven, understand not so many pairs of every kind, but threese, to the which one beast is added over and above. 1587Saunders Voy. Tripolie B iv b, Wee were cheaned three and three to an oare. 1599Minsheu Span. Dict., Dial. iii. 25 Games of chiefest price, as the Reynado, the three, two and ace, still trumpe. 1607Shakes. Cor. ii. iii. 47 We are..to come by him where he stands, by ones, by twoes, and by threes. 1755Johnson, Kayle, a kind of play..in which nine holes ranged in three's are made in the ground. 1830Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 137 Flowers solitary, or in pairs or threes. 1836in ‘Bat’ Cricket Man. (1850) 100 Threes, fours, and fives appear as easy for him to get. 1870Hardy & Ware Mod. Hoyle 77 Fifteen can be made in several ways [in cribbage]; for example, ten and five,..three fours and a three. 1889W. B. Yeats Wanderings of Oisin 130 Children sing in twos and threes. 1953R. Chandler Long Goodbye xix. 117 Three shots, three misses. I hate it when they come in threes. 1977‘M. Yorke’ Cost of Silence xvi. 130 ‘First Pedro—then Emma Widnes—now Jamie Renshaw. Who'll be next?’..‘Things do go in threes, don't they?’
c. in military drill, when each three men form a unit for the purpose of wheeling.
1796Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 63 When a division wheels to a flank rank by three's. 1832Regul. Instr. Cavalry 14 The Threes wheel at once, upon the word ‘Threes Right’, ‘Threes Left’, or ‘Threes about’. 1847Infantry Man. (1854) 61 The company..may form threes.
3. a. ellipt. for three parts or divisions; as to divide a thing in(to) three.
13..Cursor M. 10178 (Gött.) In thre [Cott. thrin] his godis did he dele. c1400Destr. Troy 1146 Þat oþer part of our pupull put we in thre! c1425Wyntoun Cron. i. ix. 534 As men may be a roundall se Merkit to be delt in thre. c1435Torr. Portugal 686 He brast hys schyld on thre. c1450Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.) 20/79 They clave my harte in III. 18..G. Macdonald Ballads, Leg. Corrievrechan xiii, The hemp was broken in three.
b. With omission of hours (of the day): three o'clock (also attrib.), also simply three; half-past three; three fifteen, 3.15 = a quarter past three.
c1460Wisdom 797 in Macro Plays 61 At þe parvise I wyll be,..be-twyn ij ande iij. 1530Palsgr. 714/1 We shal nat set in tyll to morowe thre of the clocke. 1762Foote Orator i. Wks. 1799 I. 191 We shall be sure to find them at three at the Shakspeare. 1814Scott Diary 17 Aug., in Lockhart, On board at half-past three. 1902E. Banks Newspaper Girl 42, I want you to go out at once and report that three o'clock meeting at the Methodist Church. Mod. Our train starts at three fifteen.
c. In phrases and specific uses. Three in One, (a) = the Trinity, the Triune God (also One in Three, and simply Three); (b) attrib. as three-in-one, combining three items, functions, etc., in one whole; (c) Three in One (attrib. also Three-in-One), the proprietary name of a lubricating oil. three to one, three chances to one; † in the ratio of three to one, three times (in amount) (quot. 1683). three-o(h)-three (usually printed ·303), a rifle of ·303 calibre; also, ammunition manufactured for use in such a rifle. three times three, i.e. cheers; hence as a verb (nonce-use), to utter nine times. rule of three: see rule n. 8 b.
a1711Ken Hymnarium Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 68 Most holy, holy, holy *Three, Harmonious Unity. 1849Rorison Hymn, Three in One, and One in Three, Ruler of the earth and sea. 1909Grocery Catal. (T. Eaton & Co.) 26/2 Three-in-One Hand Saw..combining in one tool a saw, 2 ft. rule and square. 1928Trade Marks Jrnl. 22 Aug. 1354/1 ‘Three in One’... Lubricating oil. Three in One Oil Co..., 130, William Street, City, County, and State of New York, United States of America; manufacturers. 1931Advertiser (Adelaide) 7 Oct. 10 (Advt.), A three-in-one garment, comprising vest, bloomers, and underskirt. 1962E. Snow Other Side of River (1963) xxxii. 245 We call it a three-in-one technique. It combines, in all grades, teaching, practical research work, and actual production. 1967N. Marsh Death at Dolphin i. 14 The key..refused to turn... ‘You want a touch of the old free-in-one... Oil, mate. Loobrication.’ 1970W. Klatt in D. J. Dwyer China Now (1974) xviii. 341 Lin Piao gave high priority to the task of ‘struggle—criticism—transformation’ which is apparently being carried out by the chief organ of the new order, i.e. the ‘three-in-one combination’ of the Revolutionary Committees, embracing representatives of the revolutionary cadres, of the People's Liberation Army and of the revolutionary masses. 1977O. Schell China (1978) i. 104 And those old factories with pollution problems must form three-in-one groups to solve their problems. 1979T. Gifford Hollywood Gothic (1980) xxiv. 240 The lock had gotten rusty, but..Three-in-One oil did the job.
1683Penn Let. to Comm. Free Soc. Traders Pennsylv. 1 The Back-Lands being generally *three to one Richer than those that lie by Navigable Waters. 1766Earl of March in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1843) II. 28 The odds are three to one on my side.
1903Kynock Jrnl. Aug.–Sept. 128/1 The ·303 Sporting Rifle. The *·303 is used a great deal as a sporting rifle, and being the Government arm is quoted in comparison with Express rifles. 1928E. Blunden Undertones of War xix. 202, I was at least more skilful with the shots of epigram than with the three-o-three of the small-arms factory. 1959[see thirty-eight s.v. thirty n. 4]. 1981J. Barnett Firing Squad viii. 79 Firearm certificate holders on ·303 Lee Enfields..were mostly rifle clubs.
1789Loiterer 19 Sept. 4 My health has been drank in a bumper, with *three times three, by every Club of Tradesmen in the City. 1813Chron. in Ann. Reg. 51/2 Next followed ‘The King’, drank standing, and with three times three. 1850Tennyson In Mem. Concl. xxvi, Again the feast, the speech, the glee,..The crowning cup, the three-times-three. 1829E. Elliott Jacobin's Prayer iv, And when pale Freedom's champions fell, He three-times-three'd his carnage yell.
d. threes, short for three per cent stock, or three per cents (so three-and-a-halfs); for three-quarter-backs (in Football); for three-pennyworth (of liquor).
1850Thackeray Pendennis xxxvi, I'm told she has six hundred thousand pounds in the Threes. 1891Daily News 27 Apr. 3/2 People who had ‘threes’ of beer and ‘large lagers’, both of which were over half a pint. 1895Ibid. 30 Sept. 2/6 French Threes rose on the day 15 c., to 101 for money. Ibid. 30 Dec. 7/4 Three-and-a-Halfs declined 25 c., to 105.45 for money. 1905Westm. Gaz. 12 Dec. 9/2 Another run by the Cambridge ‘threes’ took them down to the Oxford line once more.
III. Combinations (unlimited in number, of which the following are examples):
1. a. Adjectives formed of three and a n. (usually in singular), meaning ‘of, pertaining to, consisting of, containing, measuring, etc. three of the things named’, as three-act (consisting of three acts), three-bout (formed by three bouts of the plough), three-age, three-alarm, three-bean, three-blade, three-bushel, three-car, three-cent, three-class, three-colour, three-core, three-cylinder, three-dollar, three-electrode, three-fathom, three-foot (three-feet), three-guinea, three-hand, three-horse, three-hour(-s), three-island, three-judge, three-lane [lane n. 2 d], three-level, three-line, three-member, three mile, three-minute, three-month(-s), three-party, three-person, three-phase (phase n. 3), three-pin, three-pint, three-place, three-plait, three-ply, three-point, three-position, three-pound, three-rail, three-row, three-shilling, three-speed, three-stage, three-stairs, three-story, three-strand, three-syllable, three-term, three-throw, three-tier, three-volume, three-wheel, three-word. b. Parasynthetic adjs. formed on similar collocations + -ed2, = ‘having or characterized by three of the things named’, as three-aisled (having three aisles), three-angled, three-armed, three-bladed, three-bodied, three-bolted, three-branched, three-chinned, three-coloured, three-coned, three-corded, three-crowned, three-dayed, three-dimensioned, three-dropped, three-eared, three-engined, three-eyed, three-faced, three-fanged, three-fingered, three-floored, three-formed, three-grained, three-groined, three-handed, three-heeled, three-hooped, three-lettered, three-mouthed, three-necked, three-nooked, three-numbered, three-phased, three-pointed, three-pronged, three-ribbed, three-roomed, three-shaped, three-soled, three-storied, three-stranded, three-suited, three-syllabled, three-tailed, three-tiered, three-toothed, three-wheeled, three-wormed, etc.; spec. in botanical and zoological adjs., as three-capsuled, three-celled, three-fibred, three-flowered, three-jointed, three-lobed, three-nerved, three-petalled, three-seeded, three-valved, etc. (now largely superseded by terms derived from Latin, as tricapsular, trilocular, trivalvular, etc.); also with other endings, as † three-dayen (of three days), three-dimensional, † three-shapen, three-weekly. c. Parasynthetic ns. in -er [see -er1 1], as three-miler (one who goes three miles), three-mover [mover1 7], three-acter, three-alarmer, three-hitter, three-railer, three-tonner, three-volumer, three-wheeler.
1825H. Wilson Memoirs II. 76, I..fixed, upon Moliere's comedy of the Malade Imaginaire, which I hastily transformed into an English *three-act piece! 1905Chesterton Heretics 280 Some absurd shrill and affected voice, such as we only hear from a duchess in a three-act farce.
1948C. McCullers in Mademoiselle Sept. 257/1 By autumn I was writing a *three-acter about revenge and incest.
1957G. Bibby Testimony of Spade 31 He [sc. Christian Thomsen] was constrained to write a short account of his arrangement of the Copenhagen museum and of his *Three Age system. 1970Bray & Trump Dict. Archaeol. 231/2 Three Age System, the scheme for dividing prehistory into a stone age, bronze age and iron age. It was first formulated by C. Thomsen 1816–19.
1766Entick London IV. 204 Making a *three-isled cathedral.
1932Amer. Speech VII. 337 *Three alarm fire, used with negative to indicate mediocrity. a1975Wodehouse Sunset at Blandings (1977) xii. 80 Lord Emsworth entered looking like a refugee from a three-alarm fire.
1950O. Nash Family Reunion 80 The author's attention has been called to a type of conflagration known as a *three-alarmer.
1865Cornh. Mag. July 34 The thrice *three-angled beech nut shell.
1976Billings (Montana) Gaz. 17 June 7-b/1 Create a picnic-like atmosphere with such favorites as potato salad and *three bean salad.
1931D. Rose J. de la Cierva's Wings of Tomorrow vi. 92 For certain purposes the *three-blade rotor may prove the most efficient. 1967Jane's Surface Skimmer Systems 1967–68 9 (caption) A. Turboméca Artouste 11c drives..two three-blade variable-pitch propellers for thrust.
c1830Glouc. Farm Rep. 32 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, Cut with a *three-bladed knife.
1574Hellowes Gueuara's Fam. Ep. (1577) 336, I giue my condemned soule and life to the infernall *three bodyed Pluto.
1667Milton P.L. vi. 764 Beside him hung his Bow And Quiver with *three-bolted Thunder stor'd.
1770–4A. Hunter Georg. Ess. (1803) IV. 38 Suppose..the field to be formed into *three-bout ridges.
1617Hieron Wks. II. 352 This treble or *three-branched sufficiencie.
1860All Year Round No. 69. 448 A hectolitre contains a trifle more than a *three-bushel English corn⁓sack.
1881C. E. Turner in Macm. Mag. XLIV. 307 A gray riding-coat, with a *three-caped collar.
1944R. Chandler Lady in Lake iv. 23 Outside the wall to the left was the *three-car garage. 1980J. McNeil Spy Game ix. 93 There was..a three-car garage.
1793Martyn Lang. Bot., *Three-celled Pericarp.
1851Statutes at Large U.S.A. IX. 587 No ingots shall be used for the coinage of the *three-cent pieces herein authorized, of which the quality differs more than five-thousandths from the legal standard. 1898P. L. Ford Hon. Peter Stirling 281 The three-cent papers..abuse me. 1946Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. vi. 37 To feel like a three-cent piece with a hole in it. (To feel worthless and do-less.)
1910Westm. Gaz. 14 Feb. 6/4 [Germany] The detested *three-class system..and..the system of promotion of certain classes of electors from one class to another on other than property qualifications. 1980Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts June 411/1 Gone are..the limitations on political rights of a ‘three-class franchise’.
1741Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. iii. 403 *Three colour'd Violet or Heart's Ease.
1649Lanc. Tracts (Chetham Soc.) 277 A *three-corded scourge.
1922B.I. Hand-bk. (Brit. Insulated & Helsby Cables Ltd.) (ed. 3) 106 *Three-core cables. 1958Spectator 8 Aug. 190/2, 3-core electric wiring.
1604Hieron Wks. I. 576 To maintaine the state Of your *three-crowned potentate.
1904Westm. Gaz. 28 Dec. 3/1 The best work on the Midland [Railway] was accomplished with *three-cylinder compounds.
1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 200 God Sente..Ionas to the grete Cite of Nynyvee, wyche was a *thre-dayen Iornay.
1904Kipling Traffics & Discov. 212 ‘Heaven is beautiful, Earth is ugly,’ The *three-dimensioned preacher saith.
1858J. H. Hickcox Hist. Acct. Amer. Coinage 56 *Three Dollar gold coins were coined..under an act passed in 1853.
1618Chapman Hesiod, Georg. ii. 426 A *three-ear'd tripod.
1918Wireless World VI. 144 De Forest was experimenting with a *three-electrode valve. 1932Discovery July 216/1 The starting point of modern wireless is what is known as the three-electrode thermionic valve.
1931Nineteenth Cent. Feb. 159 The *three-engined types. 1967Economist 16 Sept. 1022/1 What might happen to passenger traffic if one's competitor should advertise ‘three engined safety’.
1598Queen Elizabeth Plutarch x. 30 Axing for..*thre yead men.
1689Lond. Gaz. No. 2510/4 A *Three faced Steel Seal.
1915D. H. Lawrence Let. 15 July in Lett. to B. Russell (1948) 53 Liberty, Equality & Fraternity is the *three-fanged serpent.
1828G. W. Bridges Ann. Jamaica II. xiv. 183 *Three-fingered Jack, the notorious rebel.
1793Martyn Lang. Bot., *Three-flowered Peduncle. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 298 Three-flowered Rush.
1567Golding Ovid's Met. vii. (1593) 157 Our *threeformed Goddesse.
1766Compl. Farmer s.v. Meadow, With a shovel, hoe, or *three grained fork.
1719Hamilton Ep. to Ramsay 24 Aug., in R.'s Poems, The pleasure..snoovt away like *three-hand ombre.
1680Cotton Compl. Gamester x. 83 Some play at two handed, or *three handed Whist. 1792J. Woodforde Diary 10 Feb. (1927) III. 335 After Coffee and Tea we got to Cards to three-handed Cribbage. 1907W. M. Cockrum Pioneer Hist. Indiana xiv. 344 Dancing was the principal amusement..three- and four-handed reels and jigs. 1937G. Greene 19 Stories (1947) 57 They had played their usual rubber of three-handed bridge. 1976‘Trevanian’ Main (1977) ii. 23 They were playing three-handed cut-throat.
a1889G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 180 Yet Arthur is a Bowman: his *three-heeled timber'll hit The bald..gold.
1976Billings (Montana) Gaz. 30 June 3-e/1 John Candelaria fired a *three-hitter and tripled in two runs during an eight-run first inning.
1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. ii. 72 The *three hoop'd pot, shall haue ten hoopes.
1812Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. i. 75 A *three-horse power does very well for potatoe-oats, when the corn is fed in by a careful hand. 1906P. Kropotkin Mem. Revolutionist (1908) I. v. 23 A three-horse carriage.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. ii. 99, I, thy *three houres wife.
1920Blackw. Mag. July 1/1 The Ulidia was a typical ‘*three-island’ tramp steamer. 1962A. G. Course Dict. Naut. Terms 198 Three island ship, a vessel with a raised forecastle forward, a raised bridge deck amidships, and a raised poop aft.
1837Penny Cycl. IX. 13/2 [The antennæ] are generally..*three-jointed.
1944Mod. Lang. Notes Dec. 515, *3-judge court. 1981Times of India 30 Aug. 4/5 A three-judge bench.
1929Sat. Even. Post 16 Nov. 41/2 On a *three-lane boulevard a local driver generally keeps well toward the center. 1972M. Jones Life on Dole xii. 88 This road..was eventually completed not as a dual carriageway but as a three-lane road.
1653R. Sanders Physiogn. 69 The *three-lettered name of the 72 Angels.
1956J. Lotz in L. White Frontiers of Knowledge xiv. 221 This multistage, *three-level construction involving phonemes, morphemes, and sentences characterizes natural language. 1979Guardian Weekly 28 Oct. 18/4 A three-level promenade.
1793Martyn Lang. Bot., *Three-lobed leaf. 1833Penny Cycl. I. 77/1 Leaves.., three-lobed.
1944Mod. Lang. Notes Dec. 515 The *three-member compound is peculiarly modern. 1957Ld. Hailey African Survey 1956 vi. 303 Such elections..might be tried as an experiment in two three-member constituencies.
1889Cent. Dict., *Three-mile limit. 1895Outing (U.S.) XXVI. 459/1 In the three-mile run England has a decided advantage. 1911Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 14 Apr. 15/4 The schooners were well within the three-mile limit, poaching on the British Columbia fisheries grounds. 1977G. V. Higgins Dreamland xii. 151 Small freighters. Plying..between Scotland and the three-mile limits, until Repeal, they easily returned their cost of purchase.
1899Daily News 19 July 6/5 The *three-milers were the next to appear.
1838E. B. Browning Seraphim 160 In the eyes all undefiled Of a little *three months' child. 1861Chicago Tribune 26 May 1/3 So shameful has been the treatment of many of the three month volunteers, that most of them will certainly return home as soon as their terms expire. 1977J. M. Johnson in Douglas & Johnson Existential Sociol. viii. 251 The three-month period when the events occurred.
1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 692 The gaping *three-mouth'd Dog forgets to snarl.
1881Brentano's Chess Monthly June 86 The sacrifice of Queen is very much the same as in the ‘Welcome’ *three-mover. 1891Athenæum 31 Jan. 148/2 The current runs..in favour of short [chess] problems; nothing beyond three-movers is even looked at.
1799H. Gurney Cupid & Psyche xx. (1800) 51 Charm the *three-neck'd dog of Hell!
1793Martyn Lang. Bot., *Three-nerved Leaf.
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iv. vi. 6 The *three nook'd world.
1876G. M. Hopkins Wr. Deutschland ix, in Poems (1967) 54 Be adored among men, God, *three-numberèd form.
1925J. A. Spender Public Life II. xix. 27 The difficulties of the *three-party system. 1978A. Gilchrist Cod Wars viii. 66 As a result of the 1956 election [in Iceland], the conservative-dominated coalition of the Independence and Progressive parties gave way to a three-party coalition from which the Independence Party was excluded.
1964I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 33 Models devised to deal with two- or *three-person groups need not lead to the trivialization of sociology.
1892Lightning 3 Mar. Gloss. Electr. Terms, *Three phase system, a system of distribution of electrical energy in which three alternating currents, each differing from the two others by one third of the period, are used. 1922Three-phase system [see bias v. 5]. 1926Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXIV. 77 These solutions of the important problem gave a simple and comparatively cheap installation, without transforming the three-phase current to direct current or..regulating the speed of the generator. 1961Listener 9 Nov. 767/2 The normal three-phase alternating current system.
1868J. C. Atkinson Gloss. Cleveland Dial. 335 Merls, sb... Other names are..Five-pin, Nine-pin, *Three-pin, Morris or Merels. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 848/1 Three-pin plug, a plug with three contact pins, two for the main circuit and one for the earth connexion. 1974A. Ross Bradford Business 75 A length of insulated cable..snaked across the floor to a three-pin socket.
1522in Bury Wills (Camden) 115 A *thre pynt pott of pewter.
1947H. Reichenbach Elem. Symbolic Logic §17. 83 A *three-place function is given by the verb ‘gives’ in the sentence ‘Peter gives Paul a book’. 1964R. H. Robins Gen. Linguistics viii. 330 English plosive and nasal consonants fall into a three-place..system, bilabial, alveolar, velar.
1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 51 Carpets, treble ingrain, *three-ply, and worsted chain Venetian. 1905Timber Trades Jrnl. 21 Jan. 72/1 Date cases, made entirely of three-ply wood. 1910, etc. Three ply [see ply n. 1].
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XIV. 606/1 One dog-tooth, and five or six *three-pointed grinders.
1921Daily Mail Year Bk. 112/2 The new..railway is..equipped with *three-position signals. 1971Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) i. iii. 16 Three-position relay, a relay which has one unenergized and two energized conditions.
1866Crump Banking x. 223 Edward VI. Gold. *Three-pound piece, sovereign [etc.].
1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4915/4 A small *three prong'd silver Fork. 1944T. H. Wisdom Triumph over Tunisia vi. 54 Jerry..dropped a load of three-pronged spikes on the runway. 1968N. Mitchell Sir George Cunningham vii. 138 A Punjabi called Khurshid Anwar..was on the Hazara border organising a three-pronged drive into Kashmir.
1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 283 The Colonel..rode his horse over a stiff *three-railer [fence].
1828Sir J. E. Smith Eng. Flora II. 93 Partial bracteas five, ovate, acute, *three-ribbed.
1844Port Phillip Patriot 11 July 1/3 A *three-roomed hut.
1593G. Harvey Pierce's Super. 109 The *three-shapen Geryon.
a1817Jane Austen Persuasion (1818) IV. vi. 116 She has a blister on one of her heels, as large as a *three shilling piece.
1640–1Kirkcudbr. War-Comm. Min. Bk. (1855) 149 The inch of *thrie-solled schoes, of the best leather, be sold at twa shillings twa pennies.
1895People 6 Jan. 4/5 The *three-speed gear bicycle invented by Messrs. Lindley and Biggs. 1902Daily Chron. 21 Nov. 11/4 The Sturmey-Archer three-speed gear,..an elaboration of the well-tried ‘Hub’ two-speed gear, is exhibited by the Raleigh Cycle Company. 1977New Yorker 9 May 34/1 A..young woman..had just bought a three-speed Raleigh. Ibid. 34/2 Why did I buy a three-speed? 1977Lancs. Life Nov. 138/2 Her bike had broken down—something to do with the three-speed. 1980J. L. Carr Month in Country 69 You can have Dad's bike... It's a three-speed and the chain has an oil bath.
1936Discovery Sept. 299/2 The proposed *three-stage rocket-ship. 1965Language XLI. 117 A three-stage process of increasing deprovincialization in Russian linguistics.
1852W. Wickenden Hunchback's Chest 330 In his *three-stairs back, Grove Street.
1814Scott Diary 22 Aug., in Lockhart, There is a decent *three-storied house, belonging to the laird. 1939Oxoniensia IV. 127 No. 2 is part of a ‘three-storeyed’ pitcher, showing a combination of various decorative ideas. 1963J. Robinson Honest to God i. 13 The traditional language of a three-storeyed universe.
1832G. Long Egypt. Antiq. I. ix. 199 To the height of 60 feet, which is considerably above the ordinary elevation of *three-story houses.
1841Catlin N. Amer. Ind. I. xxi. 147 Its string was *three stranded.
1605Shakes. Lear ii. ii. 16 A base,..beggerly, *three-suited, hundred pound, filthy woosted-stocking knaue.
1886Amer. Jrnl. Philol. VII. 246 In early Latin this energetic stress-accent was not bound by the *three-syllable limit. 1964W. S. Allen in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 4 It [sc. stress] falls..on a light antepenultimate only because of the overriding three-syllable rule, which will not permit it to recede further.
1718M. W. Montagu Let. 19 May (1965) I. 413 'Tis common for the Heirs of a great *three-tail'd Bassa not to be rich enough to keep in repair the House he built. 1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) I. 11 A three-tailed instead of a five-tailed bandage. 1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs iii, A three-tailed Pasha.
1957E. B. Jones Instrument Technol. III. ii. 72 (caption) Response of a *three-term controller to an artificial disturbance. 1977Time 21 Nov. 28/2 In Cleveland, scrappy Dennis Kucinich, 31, a former three-term city councilman, edged out Edward Feighan, 30, the candidate of the regular Democratic organization.
1883Heal & Son Catal.: Dining Rm., Libr., & Drawing Rm. Furnit. 215 *Three-tier Whatnot, in Walnut or Ebonised. 1957Ld. Hailey African Survey 1956 viii. 467 In form this constituted a ‘three-tier’ system of Councils, but it was the District Council which was to form the focal point in it. 1977Guardian Weekly 23 Oct. 8/3 The three-tier agreement is to be made up of a treaty limiting the numbers of certain strategic weapons for the period of eight years, a protocol imposing certain limits on other weapons for three years, and a statement of principles looking toward major arms reductions in the future.
1822Galt Provost xliii, Wearing..a white three-tiered wig. 1973‘M. Innes’ Appleby's Answer xv. 129 A three-tiered contraption loaded with pastries and éclairs.
1883J. D. J. Kelly in Harper's Mag. Aug. 445/2 Diminutive *three-tonners..were cruising. a1944K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) 38 This necessitated sweating about to find a three-tonner or a tank to tow us out. 1971B. W. Aldiss Soldier Erect 39 We marched off the platform in good order..and transferred our kit to a line of three-tonners standing waiting for us outside the station.
1382Wyclif 1 Sam. ii. 13 The child..hadde a flesh hook *thre tothid in his hoond.
1793Martyn Lang. Bot., *Three-valved pericarp. 1877–84F. E. Hulme Wild Fl. p. viii, Capsule obtusely three-angled and three-valved.
1844R. P. Ward Chatsworth I. 115 The fee-simple of this estate in *three-volume-noveldom.
1864G. Meredith Let. Oct. (1912) I. 162 My ‘plain story’ is first to right me and then the *3 volumer will play trumpets. 1927Daily Tel. 27 Sept. 5/1 When the ‘three-volumer’ went out it was thought we had ceased to ask for literary quantity.
1889Athenæum 10 Aug. 184/3 He has made clear the distinction between the ‘racionabilis secta’ and suit to the *three-weekly court.
1936Discovery Nov. 351/1 An 1888 Benz *three-wheel motor car. 1973Times 30 Oct. 4/1 A new three-wheel car, the Robin, for which an average fuel consumption of 50 miles to the gallon is claimed.
1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. xxxi. (1674) 35 A *three-wheel'd Charret. 1900W. S. Churchill in Morning Post 1 Jan. 5/7 Suddenly three-wheeled things appeared on the crest. 1981London Mag. July 69/1 We were rattled and rocked in our three-wheeled samlor.
1886Cyclist's Tour. Club Gaz. IV. 123 The safeties and *three-wheelers [tricycles]. 1958C. Fremlin Hours before Dawn iv. 41 She saw Mrs Henderson's miniature three-wheeler drawn up in front of the house. 1975Times 22 Dec. 3/1 Their three-wheeler disintegrated in collision with another car.
1880‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad xxx. 321 They know a word here and there, of a foreign language, or a few little beggarly *three-word phrases, filched from the back of the Dictionary. 1978R. Ludlum Holcroft Covenant xiii. 154 He had sent Sam a three-word cablegram from the airport in Lisbon.
1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xi. ⁋1 A *Three-Worm'd Spindle.
2. Special combinations and collocations: three-address a. Computers, (employing instructions) having three addresses, two that specify the location of the two operands and one that specifies where the result is to be stored; † three-aged a., living through three generations; three-anti China = Sanfan; three-awned a., having three awns, as in three-awned grass, the name of several American grasses of the genus Aristida; also called beard-grass (Cent. Dict. 1891); three-axis a., having or involving an ability to be rotated about each of three mutually perpendicular axes; three-ball a., of a golf match: involving three players, each playing his own ball; three-ball(s), a three-ball golf match; three-banded a., having three bands, as in three-banded armadillo, an armadillo of the genus Tolypeutes, distinguished by the shell consisting of three bands; three-bar a., (a) Geom. applied to a curve generated by the motion of three bars pivoted together; (b) of an electric fire: having three heating elements; three-bearded a., having three beards (beard n. 3 a) or barbels, as three-bearded cod or three-bearded rockling (see rockling); three-birds, (a) a showy garden species of toad-flax, Linaria triornithophora, from Spain; (b) name of two American orchids, Pogonia pendula and Triphora trianthophora, also called nodding cap (Cent. Dict. 1891, and Suppl. 1909); three-body a. Math. and Physics, involving or pertaining to three objects or particles; three-body problem = problem of three bodies (see sense I. 1 g); three-bottle a., applied to one who can drink three bottles of wine at a sitting; three-card a., pertaining to or played with three cards, as three-card monte (see monte); three-card trick, a trick popular with race-course sharpers, also known as find the lady, in which a queen and two other cards are spread out face downwards, and bystanders invited to bet which is the queen; three-centre a. Chem., applied to a bond in which the orbital of the two electrons forming it is spread over three contributing atoms; three-circle diagram, a Venn diagram in which there are three circles; three-cleft a., cleft or divided into three segments, trifid; three-coat a., requiring three coats, as work in plastering and painting; three-cocked a., having three cocks, as three-cocked hat (cocked ppl. a.2); also absol. as n.; † three-corned [corned2 2], three-cornered; three-crop a., of a ewe: that has borne lambs in three successive years; three-cushion a., designating a type of billiards in which the cushion must be struck at least three times by a ball at each play (see quot 1957); three-D, 3-D, 3 D a., three-dimensional, used esp. of a stereoptic process of filming; also ellipt. as n., a three-dimensional realization or state; three-day a., extending over three days, that takes three days to complete or come to an end, as three-day event, a tripartite equestrian competition, usu. with the first day given over to dressage, the second to cross-country riding, and the third to show-jumping in a ring (hence three-day eventer, a horse that participates in such competitions), three-day week, a reduced working week of only three days; three-day(s) fever = dengue; three-dimensional a., having, or appearing to have, the three dimensions of length, breadth, and depth (cf. dimension n. 3 a); = tri-dimensional a.; also fig.; hence three-dimensionality; three-dimensionally adv.; three-eight (usually {threeon8}) Mus., denoting a ‘time’ or rhythm with three quavers in a bar; three estates: see estate n. 6, 7; † three-fallow v., to fallow threefold: cf. thry-fallow; three-field a., noting a method of agriculture in which three fields are worked on a three-course system of two crops and a fallow; three-figure a., consisting of three digits; one hundred or more (pounds, runs, miles per hour, etc.); calculated to three decimal places; three-four (usually {threeon4}) Mus., denoting a ‘time’ or rhythm with three crotchets in a bar; three-halves power, the square root of the cube of a number; in Electronics used attrib. to designate a law that the anode current of a valve is proportional to the three-halves power of the anode voltage; three-high a.: see quots.; three-holes, a boys' game of marbles; three-horned a., having three horns; esp. applied to particular species of animals; Three Hours (or Hours') Service, a devotional service lasting from 12 to 3 o'clock in the afternoon of Good Friday, designed to cover the hours of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; also ellipt.; three-in-hand, three horses drawing a vehicle, driven by one person; three-iron a., welded together from three strands of iron; three-letter man, (a) U.S., a person awarded a mark of distinction (cf. letter n.1 1 e) in three different sports; (b) colloq., an obnoxious person; three-life a., applied to a system of tenure under which (till 1854) land (esp. ecclesiastical and college estates) was held during the joint lives of three persons or the longest liver of them; three-light, (a) adj. having three lights: see light n. 10; also ellipt.; (b) n. ‘a chandelier or candelabrum with three lamps for candles’ (Cent. Dict. 1891); † three-like a., having three equal sides, equilateral (of a triangle); three-line, three-lined a., having, consisting of, or marked with three lines; in Printing, extending through three lines, as a large capital letter; also, three-line (occas. -lined) whip, a written notice, underlined three times to indicate great urgency, requesting the attendance of members of Parliament at a particular parliamentary session; the discipline of such a notice; three-martini lunch U.S., a lavish lunch, esp. one charged to a business expense account; three-minute a., that occupies, or completes or is completed within, three minutes (in quot. 1833, that completes a mile in three minutes); that indicates the passage of three minutes; three-nines a., (a) (see quot. 1927); (b) of a telephone call: made to an emergency service, for which in the U.K. 999 is dialled; three-out: see out n. 1 b; three-pipe problem, a problem which requires considerable thought (for the duration of the smoking of three pipes of tobacco); three-pounder, a thing weighing three pounds; a gun firing a three-pound ball; three-putt v. intr. (Golf), to take three putts to hole the ball on a particular green; trans. to play (a green or hole) taking three putts; three-ring, -ringed circus, a circus having three rings; hence fig., a showy or extravagant spectacle; a scene of confusion or disorder; cf. one-ring circus s.v. one numeral a. 33; † three-shafted a. [cf. Ger. dreischäftig], of cloth, woven with treble web-shafts (see shaft), three-stranded; three-shear, a sheep between its third and fourth shearing; three-sixty, in various sports, aerobatics, etc.: a turn through three-hundred-and-sixty degrees; three-space, three-dimensional space; three-spined a., having three spines, as three-spined stickleback, the commonest species of stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus; three-spot, a three-pipped playing card; three-star a., having, displaying, bearing as insignia, or being designated by three stars as a mark of quality, rank, etc., usu. in a four- or five-star grading system (see star n.1 10 c, d); spec. used to designate: (a) a good quality French brandy; (b) a highly-rated hotel or restaurant; (c) U.S., a lieutenant general (in rank below a general, above a major general); (d) a grade of petrol; (e) transf., anything of high quality or in a high degree characteristic; also ellipt. as n., three-star brandy, petrol, etc.; three-striper: see striper 1; three-thorned a., having three thorns, or triple thorns, as three-thorned acacia, a name for the honey-locust (Gleditschia triacanthos), a N. American tree having thorns in groups of three; = honey locust s.v. honey n. 7 b; † three-threads, a mixture of common ale, porter, and double (or twopenny) beer, popular c 1700: see quots.; three-throw a., having three throws (see throw n.2 2), as a three-throw crank; hence, having such a crank, as three-throw pump or three-throw engine, one worked by a three-throw crank-shaft; three-time a., that has occurred or been done three times; of a person, to whom something has happened, or who has achieved something, three times; spec. three-time loser, a person who has served three prison sentences; three-two (usually {threeon2}) Mus., denoting a ‘time’ or rhythm with three minims in a bar; three-up, a game resembling pitch and toss; three-valued a., having three values; spec. in Philos., designating a logical system or technique which incorporates a third value such as indeterminacy, uncertainty, half-truth, etc., in addition to the values of truth and falsehood customary in two-valued systems; three-water a., Naut. diluted with three times its bulk of water, as three-water grog or three-water rum; also absol.; three-went way, dial. a point where three roads meet without intersecting; cf. four-went; three-wire a., (a) applied to a system of distributing electric power, involving three mains and two dynamos, the two outer mains being joined to the free terminals of the dynamos, and the central main to a conductor joining the two; (b) applied to a system of mooring used to keep an airship or balloon at a constant height from the ground; three-wood, (a) Archery, a bow made of three pieces of wood; also attrib.; (b) Golf, a wooden club providing medium loft, formerly called a spoon (spoon n. 4 c).
1948Math. Tables & other Aids to Computation III. 69 The control of this machine is accomplished, for the most part, by means of *three-address orders. In contrast, the ‘Mark I’ at Harvard uses a two-address system. 1970O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing vi. 103 A three-address machine. 1976Banks & Doupnik Introd. Computer Sci. vii. 242 The principal disadvantage of three address instructions is their great length and consequent excessive use of memory space.
1697Creech tr. Manilius i. 30 Great Atreus Sons,..With *three-ag'd Nestor.
1966, etc. *Three-anti [see Sanfan]. 1975A. Watson Living in China iv. 90 The ‘three anti’ campaign which opposed the three evils of corruption, waste and excessive red tape in the Party and government.
1962V. Grissom in Into Orbit 78 We had to learn from scratch..how to manipulate the new *three-axis control stick and make the precise adjustments in yaw, pitch and roll. 1977Dædalus Fall 52 Some [satellites] are provided..with three-axis stabilization, so that their instruments can be pointed steadily, for long periods of time, to a chosen target.
1839Rules of Hon. Co. Edin. Golfers in C. B. Clapcott Rules of Ten Oldest Golf Clubs (1935) 69 In a *Three-ball match, the Ball nearest the hole, and within the prescribed distance, must be lifted, if the third party require it, where the Player does so or not. 1890H. G. Hutchinson Golf ix. 241 The three-ball match;..these matches are of two kinds, that wherin each plays against each, and that wherin two are in combination against a third, though each play his individual ball. 1901Rules of Golf 5 Three players may play against each other, each playing his own ball, when the match is called ‘a three-ball match’.
1952Chambers's Jrnl. May 299/1 The Major introduced them without enthusiasm and Basil promptly attached himself to the party, much to the Major's annoyance, for he hated *three-balls. 1976Webster's Sports Dict. 450/1 Three-ball, a golf match in which 3 players compete against each other with each playing his own ball.
1800Shaw Gen. Zool. I. 188 *Three-banded Armadillo..may be considered..as the most elegant of the whole genus;..it is a native of Brazil. 1956G. Durrell Drunken Forest iv. 75 Inside the hat, curled into a tight ball, lay..a three-banded armadillo. 1966E. Palmer Plains of Camdeboo xii. 196 A three-banded plover was paddling in the furrow.
1875S. Roberts in Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 11 Nov. 14, I propose to extend..to general *three-bar motion a discussion..of some particular cases. 1876Cayley Math. Papers IX. 551 The Three-Bar Curve is derived from the motion of a system of three bars..pivoted to each other, and to two fixed points. 1973‘H. Carmichael’ Too Late for Tears vi. 81 In the hearth stood a *3-bar electric fire. 1979T. Wiseman Game of Secrets iv. 49 A three-bar electric heater.
1936Physical Rev. L. 638/2 The procedure for the *three-body problem. 1968M. S. Livingston Particle Physics iv. 74 Evidence that this is a three-body decay is that the electrons have a wide distribution in energy. 1972Sci. Amer. Jan. 85/1 The Herzberg bands of O2 and the atmospheric infrared bands probably both owe their origin to three-body association: O + O + X → O2* + X, where X, the third atom..is unchanged in the process.
1806T. S. Surr Winter in Lond. III. 121 Metamorphosed from a *three-bottle man to the image of temperance.
1854T. Parker in Weiss Life (1863) II. 134 *Three-card-monte men, and gambling-house keepers. 1887Lowell Tariff Reform Wks. 1890 VI. 187 They..play their three-card trick. 1920C. Sandburg Smoke & Steel 175 Pick⁓pockets, yeggs, three card men. 1938[see broad n. 6]. 1973Times 19 Jan. 3/8 Three-card tricksters are a nuisance. They have someone posted to watch for the police, then they invite people to lay down money on which of three cards..is the ‘lady’. 1979W. H. Canaway Solid Gold Buddha xxii. 145 Sam was as confused as a yokel watching a three-card artist.
1954W. H. Eberhardt et al. in Jrnl. Chem. Physics XXII. 989/1 In our approach, the only new, or rather, unfamiliar concept is that which we call the ‘*three-center bond’. 1978Further Perspectives Organic Chem. (CIBA Symp.) 61 The short S{b1}O bonds in the thioimine may reflect a three-centre bond.
1883J. Venn in Proc. Cambr. Philos. Soc. IV. 51 Both Drobisch and Schröder have used what I have called..the *three-circle diagram. 1952W. V. Quine Methods of Logic i. 79 We set up a three circle diagram as usual.
1793Martyn Lang. Bot., *Three-cleft, trifidus. Ibid., Three-cleft-palmate leaf. 1875Morris æneid ii. 475 Three-cleft tongue.
1842Brande Dict. Sc., etc., *Three-coat Work. In Architecture. 1877Knight Dict. Mech., Three-coat Work. (Plastering.) The first is called pricking-up on lath... The second coat is called floating; the third, set or finishing-coat.
1813Ld. Palmerston in Parl. Deb. 8 Mar., To see the troops in the small *three cocked hats which they formerly wore.
a1608Dee Rel. Spirits i. (1659) 83 The books be green, bright, and they be *three-corned.
1946J. Cary Moonlight viii. 53 One heard first a single ‘aw-aw’ from some old *three-crop mother, followed at once by a hearty ‘mey’ from her stout lamb. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 1 Mar. 77/3 Mr. McIlwraith also paid..{pstlg}180 for a three-crop ewe.
1910Encycl. Brit. III. 939/2 There is also *Three-Cushion Carom..and the Bank-Shot game. 1957Ibid. III. 569/1 A count is validly made in three-cushion billiards in any one of four ways: (1) when the cue ball strikes an object ball and then strikes three or more cushions before striking the second object ball; (2) when the cue ball strikes three or more cushions before contacting the two object balls; (3) when the one ball strikes a cushion, then the first object ball, then two or more cushions and then the second object ball; (4) when the cue ball strikes two or more cushions, then the first object ball, then one or more cushions and finally the second object ball. 1974Mark Twain Jrnl. Summer 3/1 Cure and Cutler played a game of three cushion billiards, a novelty at the time [sc. 1906].
1952Jrnl. Soc. Motion Picture & Television Engineers Oct. 249/1 Up to now the production of three-dimensional (*3-D) films has been sporadic. 1953Sun (Baltimore) 5 Feb. 14/1 We receive with mixed reaction the news that three-dimensional motion pictures, coyly called ‘3-D’, will shortly come into general distribution. 1953, etc. 3-D, 3D [see D., dimensional, s.v. D III. 3]. 1955W. Gaddis Recognitions iii. v. 914 She's terrific, even in 3-D she'd be terrific. 1966T.V. Times (Austral.) 7 Dec. 10/2 Three-D Television is now the subject of experiment in several overseas countries, particularly Russia. 1971‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Doctor Bird x. 130 Monopoly would maybe do. Or three-D noughts and crosses? 1983U.S.A. Today 20 May 5d/4 But in a 3-D comic, futility flattens the actors even as the visual gimmick pops them out.
1890Pall Mall G. 18 Aug. 2/1 Whether you go by a two-day or a *three-day coach. 1937S. Cloete Turning Wheels ix. 143 Three day sickness, which as a rule animals recovered from if left alone, meant abandoning beasts since there was no time to wait for them to recover. 1965N.Y. Herald Tribune 18 Apr. 3 An annual three-day..walk. 1976Times 21 May 2/5 The committee's three-day conference on negotiated independence..has been postponed.
1952Rules & Reg. governing One-Day Events (Brit. Horse Soc.) 5 One Day combined Tests..lead up to the Olympic *Three Day Event. 1963E. H. Edwards Saddlery vii. 69 This is not of importance by the time one's horse is sufficiently advanced to perform Three Day Event tests. 1982Barr & York Official Sloane Ranger Handbk. 152/1 The easiest house parties are for a sport—racing, three-day event, shooting.
1976Horse & Hound 10 Dec. 57/1 (Advt.), An ideal type to sire top quality point-to-pointers and *three-day-eventers.
1974Times 16 Feb. 1/1 The *three-day week will carry unemployment to a very high level. 1977M. Walker National Front vi. 147 The state of national emergency and the three-day week.
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 376 Synonyms [of Dengue]..polka fever (Brazilian), *three days fever.
1878*Three-dimensional [see dimension n. 3 a]. 1882[see dimensional a. 2]. 1920W. W. Strong New Philos. of Mod. Sci. xvi. 142 In gravitational phenomena a small disturbance leaves a circular trajectory finite in a three dimensional space. 1923H. Crane Let. 2 Mar. (1965) 129 O yes, the ‘background of life’—and all that is still there, but that is only three-dimensional. 1925B. Dobrée in W. Congreve Comedies p. xvii, Congreve..made his people three-dimensional. 1953N.Y. Times 19 Feb. 20 This much touted picture..is advertised as the first feature made in the three-dimensional Natural Vision process. 1971A. Drummond Auckland Jrnls. Vicesimus Lush 22 His children..emerge from the pages of his journals as sufficiently three-dimensional figures to be of interest to readers a century later.
1926H. Read Eng. Stained Glass i. 11/2 *Three-dimensionality. Perspective and shading give the proper spatial relations of the various details represented. 1956E. H. Hutten Lang. Mod. Physics vi. 208 This..suggests that causal action exemplified by the inverse-square law is connected with the three-dimensionality of space. 1977Jrnl. Playing-Card Soc. Nov. 69 The three-dimensionality of 19th- and 20th-century German cards is one of their distinguishing features.
1958C. Smith in ‘E. Crispin’ Best SF Three 210 Light..allowed the ships to reform *three-dimensionally..as they moved from star to star. 1979Nature 29 Mar. 439/2 The method for producing these three-dimensionally interconnected fibrous structures is described here.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 22 b, For some seede, you must not only twyfallowe and *threefallowe your ground, but also fourefallow it.
1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 156 The Polish *three-field farming. 1907M. C. F. Morris Nunburnholme 251 Supposing the three-field system to be adopted.
1855J. Lang Forger's Wife xv. 44 ‘There is not a really good placard on the walls—tens, and fifteens, and twenties; but not a single *three-figure gentleman’ (he meant {pstlg}100) ‘among 'em.’ 1861C. Knight Eng. Cycl.: Arts & Sci. VII. 1007 A. De Morgan. Three-figure logarithms: three figures of numbers to three of logarithm, complete, on a sheet of 7½ by 6 inches. 1929Star 21 Aug. 12/1 A three-figure stand. 1973J. Wainwright Devil you Don't 5 It was a great car—a Jag. Mark II—well capable of three-figure speeds. 1978R. V. Jones Most Secret War xxi. 174 Assuming..that the three-figure entries were bearings.
1902Westm. Gaz. 14 June 4/3 The new waltz,..the ‘Military Dip’, is in *three-four waltz time, and has one dip to each three counts.
1920Proc. Inst. Radio Engineers VIII. 70 At low plate voltages..the measured values of the amplification constant are lower and the *three-halves power law does not appear to hold. 1963B. Fozard Instrumentation Nucl. Reactors xi. 138 As the anode voltage is raised the equation to the anode characteristic takes the commonly assumed three-halves power law.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Three-high Roll (Metal-working), a rolling-apparatus in which three rollers are arranged in a vertical series. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Three-high train, a roll-train composed of three rolls, the bar being entered on one side between the bottom and the middle roll, and on the other side between the middle and the upper roll.
1853Lytton My Novel i. xi, Keep off the other boys from..playing *three-holes and chuck-farthing.
1681Grew Musæum i. vii. §2. 163 The little *Three-Horned Beetle, Scarabæus Triceros minor. 1887Morris Odyss. xii. 135 Unto the Three-horned island she sent them aloof to dwell.
[1864Guardian 30 Mar. 299/2 The English Church is indebted to Mr. Mackonochie for the revival of..the admirable ancient Office in Commemoration of the Three Hours.] 1898(title) The *three hours' service for Good Friday. 1923Spectator 5 May 753/2 Two hours afterwards I went to the Three Hours at a church in a residential southern suburb. 1976Oxford Mission Q. Paper July/Sept. 5 The little church was packed from beginning to end of the Three Hours.
1816‘Quiz’ Grand Master vii. 198 When Jove had found that *three in hand This Jehu did not understand.
1892Greener Breech-Loader 5 Processes of Barrel Welding. (1) *Three-Iron Damascus; (2) Two-Iron Damascus.
1929R. H. Barbour Tod Hale on Nine xxiv. 264 He wanted to be a ‘*three-letter man’, and until a few days ago his chance had looked very bright. 1941Amer. Speech XVI. 190 Three-letter man, F-A-G. 1946J. Irving Royal Navalese 81 A three-letter man is a ‘cad’. 1972Sci. Amer. Feb. 114/2 A boxer of almost professional caliber; a three-letter man in college, a Rhodes scholar, he passed the bar examination but after only a year of practice decided ‘to chuck the law for astronomy’.
1898A. F. Leach Beverley Act Bk. I. p. xlv, In 1300, one of the Canons leased, on the usual *three-life system, some of the lands of his prebend.
1618in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 208 One *three light window and two single light windowes. 1853in Notes on Cheshire Churches (Chetham Soc.) (1894) 10 Each side of the porch having open three-light windows. 1908–9H. R. Barker E. Suffolk Illustr. 330 The east window is a Transitional three-light, and in the side walls are very good two-lights in square heads. 1937Burlington Mag. Mar. 149/1 The three-light Peter de Dene window of the Minster.
1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. Defin., That the Greekes doo call Isopleuron, and Latine men æquilaterum: and in english it may be called a *threlike triangle.
1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxii. ⁋5 He begins his Chapter..with a..*Three or Four-lin'd Letter.
a1912Mod. A three-lined whip has been issued for to-night's division in the House of Commons. 1939W. I. Jennings Parliament iii. 78 A ‘three-line whip’ indicates that all other engagements should be put aside. 1958Spectator 27 June 826/3 A debate sufficiently important to warrant a three-line whip. 1975J. P. Morgan House of Lords & Labour Govt. iv. 127 Labour Peers took their own vote on the question of the vote in the Lords, choosing a free vote, unlike M.P.s who agreed to submit to a three-line whip.
1972G. McGovern in W. Safire Polit. Dict. (1978) 727/1 The rich businessman can deduct his *three-martini lunch, but you can't take off the price of a baloney sandwich. 1977Time 26 Sept. 49/2 Carter has railed so vehemently against the ‘three-martini lunch’ that his staff has to come up with something.
1833Knickerbocker I. 160 The present Mrs. S. admired his *three minute roan. 1857Uncle Jack the Fault Killer ix. 131 My three-minute glass lets the sand run through just in three minutes, which is time to boil an egg. 1958Three minute [see long-playing a.].
1927W. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 89 The house-agent's repulsive terminology e.g...a *three nines agreement (i.e 999 years). 1982P. Turnbull Dead Knock i. 11 Tango Delta Foxtrot..responded to a three-nines call for a fire appliance.
1891A. Conan Doyle in Strand Mag. Aug. 197/2 It is quite a *three-pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes. 1976Lancet 20 Nov. 1131/2 Appraising and comparing the effectiveness of what we do has certainly up to now proved to be what Sherlock Holmes would have called ‘a 3-pipe problem’.
1684J. Peter Siege Vienna 109 *Three pounders of Iron. 1872H. Kingsley Hornby Mills, etc. II. 232 One three-pounder is worth fishing all day for. 1876Bancroft Hist. U.S. V. xx. 568 The Hessians captured two brass three-pounders, which had lately arrived from France.
1946Sun (Baltimore) 2 July 17/6 Joe Kirkwood..scored a 74,..*three-putting the last green. Ibid., Lawson Little overshot the greens and three-putted frequently. 1978Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. e7/3 McLendon..three-putted the 18th about the same time.
1898B. Matthews Outlines in Local Color 145 What good is a three-ringed circus to anybody, except the boss of it? 1904Everybody's Mag. Aug. 161/2 A Barnum *three-ring circus compared to Henry H. Rogers's exhibitions. 1904‘O. Henry’ in McClure's Mag. Apr. 613/2 They commenced to scramble down, and for awhile we had a three-ringed circus. 1914Kipling Diversuty of Creatures (1917) 394, I can see lots of things from here. It's like a three-ring circus! 1951,1955[see circus 2 c]. 1981D. Clark Roast Eggs viii. 159 Don't m'lud me... You turned my court into a damned three-ring circus.
c1440Promp. Parv. 492/2 (MS. A.) *Thre schaftyd clothe, trilix.
1770–4A. Hunter Georg. Ess. (1803) IV. 593 Under the necessity of wintering some of their *three-shears before they are marketable. 1886C. Scott Sheep-Farming 18 After the third shearing, three-shear or four-shear, three or four year olds, are the definitions employed.
1927C. A. Lindbergh We v. 82 One of the first lessons was the ‘*three sixty’—so named because its completion required a total change in direction of three hundred and sixty degrees. 1977Skateboard Special Sept. 7/1 The first really difficult stunt I learned then was a three-sixty. That..is a stunt where you spin the board through a full circle on its back wheels.
1972Sci. Amer. Dec. 102/2 A Möbius strip, for example, has a handedness in *3-space that cannot be altered by twisting and stretching. 1977New York Rev. Bks. 12 May 29/1 A plane is infinite and unbounded. Bend it through ‘three-space’ (i.e., three-dimensional space) and it can be the closed surface of a sphere.
1769T. Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 217 The *three spined s[tickle] back... These are common in many of our rivers. 1836W. Yarrell Hist. Brit. Fishes I. 77 The Three-spined Stickleback was first described by Belon. 1971Nature 23 Apr. 536/2 The three-spined stickleback..found sanctuary in the Atlantic.
[1871G. H. Lewes Let. 27 Aug. in Geo. Eliot Lett. (1955) V. 180 Will you meanwhile order for me from the Stores..3 bottles of Martorell's three stars Brandy at 5/-.] 1879R. J. Atcherley Trip to Boërland ii. 32 In the up-country towns of the Transvaal..common brandy is retailed at 1s., and ‘*Three Star’ at 1s. 6d. per glass. 1929Amer. Speech IV. 387 A little three-star Hennessey brought overland from Detroit. 1931S. Cooke This Motoring xvii. 172 The..Lion at Guildford..is a typical three-star A.A. hotel. 1939[see S.A.E., s.a.e. s.v. S 4 a]. 1944Mod. Lang. Notes Dec. 526 Whereas once a sword, a ship, was given an epithet fit for a hero or a goddess, today a warrior is labelled in the manner of a manufactured product:..3-star general. 1960Harper's Bazaar July 19/1 The number of three-star restaurants in France has just dropped from 11 to 10. This reduction has been effected by the Guide Michelin. 1968Listener 28 Mar. 405/3 Courvoisier V.S.O.P., he croaked, none of your rotten Three Star. Ibid. 1 Aug. 159/3 To ask for..two gallons of three-star. 1973J. Burrows Like an Evening Gone xvii. 220 ‘I'd respect any decent woman.’ ‘What about Tamara Tayne?’ ‘That three star whore? That's a different category.’ 1973H. Gilbert Hotels with Empty Rooms xiii. 114 He..poured himself a glass of three-star cognac. 1977Air Mail Spring 45/2 (Advt.), Six-berth luxury caravan for hire on three-star site with all amenities. 1977A. Sampson Arms Bazaar xvii. 288 He is a stocky three-star general from Alabama..on his tie was a three-star tie pin. 1979Country Life 13 Sept. 807/2 The typical three-star menu..of foie gras and truffles with everything... And still, in too many three-stars, foie gras with everything. 1982S. Wilson Dealer's Wheels ix. 85 We filled up with three-star..and I went to check the oil and tyres.
1818Mass Agric. Repository & Jrnl. V. 56 Gleditsia Triacanthos. It is also called *Three-Thorned Acacia in the catalogues of nurserymen. 1822Hortus Angl. II. 573 Gleditschia Triacanthos. Three thorned Acacia, or Honey Locust Tree.
1698W. King tr. Sorbière's Journ. Lond. 35 He had a thousand such Sort of Liquors, as..*Three Threads, Four Threads. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Three-threads, half common Ale, and the rest Stout or Double Beer. 1802[see entire A. 2 b].
1829Nat. Philos. I. Hydraulics ii. 12 (Usef. Knowl. Soc.) Keeping two or..three pumps constantly at work by what is called a triple or *three-throw crank. 1900Engineering Mag. XIX. 726 Three-throw ram pump for dip workings.
1908J. Kelley Thirteen Yrs. Oregon Penitentiary vii. 81 Pat came back again; he was a *three-time loser. 1914, etc. Three-time [see loser 4]. 1943P. Cheyney You can always Duck vi. 96 He's a three-time killer. 1979Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 20 Sept. 6d/1 The Cats..will be led into tomorrow's meet by three-time All-America selection Thom Hunt and 1978 All-American choice Dirk Lakeman.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 12/1 ‘Shove-halfpenny’ is another game played by them [costermongers]; so is ‘*Three up’.
1932Lewis & Langford Symbolic Logic vii. 213 One such alternative is the *Three-valued Calculus, developed by Lukasiewicz and Tarski. Ibid., If, in addition, the number ½ is taken, then we have the matrix of the three-valued system. 1934Mind XLIII. 104 Professor Lukasiewicz is sole author of these systems, having originated the three-valued system in 1920, and n-valued systems in 1922. 1946Nature 14 Sept. 356/2 This decisive step opens the way for the construction of a new non-Aristotelian logic, a ‘three-valued logic’ as it is called. 1965N. Chomsky Aspects of Theory of Syntax 232 Thus we can regard..gender as a three-valued..dimension. 1967Encycl. Philos. VII. 118/1 With this way of reconstructing quantum mechanics, use must be made of a three-valued logic. 1974tr. Wertheim's Evol. & Revol. i. 100 Three-valued prestige models were used by people who placed themselves in the middle class.
1840P. Parley's Ann. I. 295 A large lump of salt beef, with some *three water grog. 1905Daily Chron. 25 May 4/7 Rum and water came to be called ‘grog’ likewise, being ‘two-water’ or ‘three-water’ grog, according to the proportions of the mixture.
1787Kentish Trav. Comp. 49 He gets to a *three-went way.
1898Westm. Gaz. 9 July 7/2 There was some discussion as to the particular kind of electrical equipment to be used, but eventually the *three-wire system was adopted. 1933O.E.D. Suppl., Three wire mooring. 1934J. A. Sinclair Airships in Peace & War ix. 186 Then came the three-wire system, which was first employed on the rigid airship No. 9 in 1917... To steady the bow, three wires were taken from the mooring point and attached to three bollards set in a triangle... A three-wire mooring was prepared at Pulham.
1875Encycl. Brit. II. 376/1 Bows..made of three pieces..are called *three-woods... Three-wood bows being made a little reflex, should retain their shape. [1938R. A. Whitcombe Golf's no Mystery xiii. 80 The spoon—or as it is called the No. 3 wood—is one of the golfer's greatest friends.] 1949B. Hogan Power Golf ii. 15 Three wood..235 [yards]. 1960Times 24 June 19/2 Second shots with a three-wood and a one-iron at these two holes brought him just short of the green in each case. |