1549 W. Thomas Hist. Italie f. 28^v A noumbre of hotehouses in euerie Therme.

1606 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.) ii. iv. 32 O cleer Therms, If so your Waues be cold; what is it warms, Nay, burns my hart?

1613 S. Daniel Coll. Hist. Eng. i. 25 Britaine..could not but partake of the magnificence of their goodly structures, Thermes, Aquaductes, High wayes.

1629 tr. Herodian Hist. (1635) 175 The Theaters, Therms, and all the splendor and glory thereof.

1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture II. 74/1 A public Bath or Therme.

1890 T. E. Bridgett Blunders & Forgeries ii. 32 The same author describes the therms at Paris.

1888 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 56 It was resolved, on the motion of Mr. W. H. Preece, to adopt the name ‘Therm’ for the Gramme-Water-Degree-Centigrade Unit of Heat.

1888 Nature 13 Dec. 159 Electrical Notes... The term ‘therm’, in place of calorie, for the unit of heat in the C.G.S. system, has not met with general approbation.

1889 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 514 The Therm as the unit of heat..did not commend itself to the French members [of the Electrical Congress in Paris, 1889]. They preferred for the present to retain the word Calorie.

1899 E. Edser Heat Pref. 1 Following the nomenclature used in the Smithsonian Physical Tables the term therm has been [here] used [etc.].

1920 Act 10 & 11 George V c. 28 §1 (2) A standard or maximum price for each hundred thousand British thermal units (in this Act referred to as ‘a therm’).

1922 Westm. Gaz. 18 Oct. 8/5 The new method of charging by therm.

1955 Times 20 July 8/3 A ‘substantial increase’ was forecast by the chairman of the South Eastern Gas Board when he announced recently an increase of 2d, a therm in the price of gas.

1982 Daily Tel. 26 Apr. 2/8 The average price being paid by British Gas for existing and new supplies is 10p–12p a therm.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Terms Some write the Word Thermes, from Hermes, a Name the Greeks gave the God Mercury; whose Statue..was placed in several of the Cross-ways in the City of Athens.

1811 W. Cooke Thames Sign. 39, lf. 3 The first object is the bust of Flora, on a therm.

1846 J. E. Worcester Universal Dict. Eng. Lang. Therm.., a pedestal increasing upwards for the reception of a bust.

1788 Cabinet-makers' London Bk. Prices (1803) No. 7 If the plinth of the Therms is work'd hollow [price, extra, 1½d.]

1802–3 T. Sheraton Cabinet Dict. Therm. Tapering.

1925 J. Penderel-Brodhurst & E. J. Layton Gloss. Eng. Furnit. 173 Therm foot, a rectangular tapering foot to the legs of chairs and tables, also called a spade or taper foot, often used by the brothers Adam and Hepplewhite, and to a lesser degree by Sheraton. Therm leg, the taper or therm leg was a favourite feature of Hepplewhite and later designers.

1952 J. Gloag Short Dict. Furnit. 475 (caption) Ten designs for therms for claws.

1791 J. Woodforde Diary 11 Dec. (1927) III. 318 It froze all day long even within doors very quick Therm at 52.

1799 T. R. Malthus Diary 21 July (1966) 173 Yesterday his therm was 18, & mine in a deep shade was 71.

1877 W. Whitman Daybks. & Notebks. (1978) I. 58 Very hot—therm 90–96.

1788 Cabinet-Makers' London Bk. Prices (1803) No. 12 The Price of Therming Legs... The Price of Therming in the Neck... When the legs are therm'd at the top only, the tapering to be paid for extra.

1952 J. Gloag Short Dict. Furnit. 470 Taper leg, a leg of square section, sometimes called a thermed leg, gradually diminishing towards the foot, introduced in the second half of the 18th century for chairs, tables and sideboards.

1907 G. O. Wheeler Old Eng. Furnit. 461 Therming, a process of conferring a delicate taper, especially applied to the feet of chairs, sideboards, and tables of the Sheraton order.

1925 J. Penderel-Brodhurst & E. J. Layton Gloss. Eng. Furnit. 173 Therming, a process in use towards the end of the eighteenth century, before circular and band saws were invented, by which the legs of chairs and tables were thermed or tapered, by means of a lathe provided with a cylinder about six feet in diameter, on which the legs were placed and turned down one side at a time.