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单词 thought
释义

thoughtn.

Brit. /θɔːt/, U.S. /θɔt/, /θɑt/
Forms: Old English ðocht (Northumbrian), Old English–early Middle English ðoht, Old English–Middle English þoht, early Middle English dhogt, early Middle English þauht, early Middle English ðhogt, early Middle English þocht, early Middle English ðogt, early Middle English ðoȝt, early Middle English ðohgt, early Middle English þohht ( Ormulum), early Middle English þohut, early Middle English þoit, early Middle English þoith, early Middle English þoðt, early Middle English þoucht, early Middle English ðouht, early Middle English þoust, early Middle English þovt, Middle English ȝhoht (northern), Middle English ȝout, Middle English thoghte, Middle English thogt, Middle English thoȝt, Middle English thoht, Middle English þhouȝte (south-west midlands), Middle English thouhte, Middle English thounge (transmission error), Middle English þhout (south-west midlands), Middle English thouth, Middle English thowt, Middle English thowth, Middle English þoght, Middle English þoȝt, Middle English þoȝte, Middle English þoȝth, Middle English þoȝto (transmission error), Middle English þoȝut, Middle English þotht (northern and Irish English), Middle English þouȝ, Middle English þought, Middle English þouȝht, Middle English þouȝt, Middle English þouȝte, Middle English þouȝth, Middle English þouht, Middle English þout, Middle English þouþ (Buckinghamshire), Middle English þouth, Middle English þowȝt, Middle English þowt, Middle English yhaht (north-east midlands), Middle English yhoght (north-east midlands), Middle English–1500s thouȝt, Middle English–1600s thoght, Middle English–1600s thouht, Middle English– thought, late Middle English doȝt (transmission error), late Middle English theoght, late Middle English thogh (Irish English), late Middle English thoghȝt (East Anglian), late Middle English thoȝte, late Middle English thogth (in a late copy), late Middle English thoȝth, late Middle English thotht (northern and north-east midlands), late Middle English thouȝte, late Middle English thoute, late Middle English thoutȝ, late Middle English thouthe, late Middle English thowgth (East Anglian), late Middle English thowht, late Middle English thowhte, late Middle English thoyth (northern), late Middle English toght (north-east midlands), late Middle English toth (Irish English), late Middle English þough, late Middle English þouthe, late Middle English þowȝth, late Middle English þowth (East Anglian), late Middle English towyth, late Middle English toyght (northern), late Middle English toyȝt (northern), late Middle English toyth (north-east midlands), late Middle English–1500s thout, late Middle English–1500s thowte, late Middle English–1600s thoughte, late Middle English–1600s thougth, late Middle English–1600s thowght, 1500s thoutht, 1500s thowghte, 1500s thowgt, 1500s thowthe, 1600s thouhgt, 1700s–1800s tho't (regional and nonstandard), 1900s– thot (regional and nonstandard); English regional 1800s– thout (northern), 1800s– thowt (northern), 1900s– thoct (Derbyshire); Scottish pre-1700 thoft, pre-1700 thogt, pre-1700 thogth, pre-1700 thot, pre-1700 thotht, pre-1700 thouch, pre-1700 though, pre-1700 thougth, pre-1700 thouth, pre-1700 thoutht, pre-1700 thowcht, pre-1700 thowght, pre-1700 tocht, pre-1700 1700s thoght, pre-1700 1700s– thocht, pre-1700 1700s– thought, pre-1700 1800s (1900s– rare) thoct, pre-1700 1800s– thoucht, 1800s thoch, 1800s– toucht (Shetland), 1800s– tought (Shetland), 1900s– thowt (Orkney), 1900s– tout (Orkney); N.E.D. (1912) also records a form Middle English thowthe. Also plural early Middle English ðhowtes, Middle English þohoghtes (transmission error), Middle English þouȝten, Middle English þouȝttes, late Middle English thoughttys, late Middle English þouhtous; Scottish pre-1700 thoitts, pre-1700 thowchttis.
Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.
Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian thochta (which probably shows shortening of a long vowel before /xt/) < the same Germanic base as think v.2 + the Germanic base of -th suffix1 (compare -t suffix3), although in some instances perhaps aphetic < the Old English prefixed form geþōht or its early Middle English reflex iþoht (see below). Compare (with prefixation: see y- prefix and compare Old English geþōht ) Old Dutch (plural) gethāhti (Middle Dutch gedachte , Dutch gedachte ), Old Saxon githāht (Middle Low German gedachte , gedacht ), Old High German gidāht (Middle High German gedāht , gedaehte ), and also (from the same base but with different suffixation) thank n. and i-thank n.; compare also (with a different ablaut grade, as shown by think v.1) Old Icelandic þōtti, þōttr, Gothic þūhtus.In Old English usually a strong masculine; however, a strong neuter and (rarely) a strong feminine are also occasionally attested. In most of its senses thought corresponds not so much to Old English þōht , as to the much commoner prefixed form geþōht (compare y- prefix), which survived into early Middle English as iþoht. In Old English the unprefixed form þōht is chiefly (although not exclusively) attested in Northumbrian.
I. In various senses corresponding to think v.2 I.
1.
a. The action or process of thinking; mental action or activity in general, esp. that of the intellect; exercise of the mental faculty; formation and arrangement of ideas in the mind.In quot. a1325: thinking in a specified way; (nearly) feeling, emotion. train of thought: see train n.2 16b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intellect > [noun]
i-witc888
anyitOE
witOE
thoughtOE
inwitc1305
intention1340
mindc1384
understandingc1384
intentc1386
intelligencec1390
intellecta1398
minda1398
understanda1400
intellectionc1449
ingeny1477
intellectivec1484
mind-sight1587
intellectual1598
notion1604
intelligency1663
mental1676
nous1678
grasp1683
thinker1835
Geist1871
noesis1881
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun]
witOE
thoughtOE
cogitation1557
thinkingness1672
thinkfulness1674
thoughtsomeness1674
cogitativity1722
cogitancy1759
maiden-thought1818
cogitativeness1823
thought centre1846
thought-consciousness1901
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > process of thinking
i-thankc1000
thoughtOE
cogitation?c1225
thinkinga1382
imaginationa1393
pansing?a1505
beating1606
brainwork1606
brain labour1638
headwork1642
thought process1850
thought-action1860
thought-production1881
nutting1951
the mind > will > intention > [noun] > intention or purpose
willeOE
highOE
thoughtOE
intent?c1225
achesounc1230
attenta1250
couragec1320
devicec1320
minda1325
studya1382
understanding1382
suggestionc1390
meaninga1393
i-minda1400
minta1400
tent1399
castc1400
ettlingc1400
affecta1425
advicec1425
intention1430
purposec1430
proposea1450
intendment1450
supposing?c1450
pretensionc1456
intellectionc1460
zeal1492
hest?a1513
minting?a1513
institute?1520
intendingc1525
mindfulness1530
cogitationa1538
fordrift1549
forecast1549
designing1566
tention1587
levela1591
intendiment1595
design1597
suppose1597
aim1598
regarda1616
idea1617
contemplationa1631
speculation1631
view1634
way of thinking1650
designation1658
tend1663
would1753
predetermination1764
will to art1920
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of ideation > [noun] > forming of ideas
thoughta1325
conceptiona1387
conceiving1559
conceiting1563
surmise1592
apprehension1597
realization1797
ideation1818
conceptualization1866
conceptualizing1897
OE Confessionale Pseudo-Egberti (Corpus Cambr. 190) 178 Sacerd gif he mid þohtes wilnunga [OE Junius in geþohtes wilnunga] sy besmiten, fæste wucan.
c1175 ( Ælfric's Homily on Nativity of Christ (Bodl. 343) in A. O. Belfour 12th Cent. Homilies in MS Bodl. 343 (1909) 88 Þeo sawle..bisceawiæð heofenum & ofer sæ flyhð..& alle þas þing mid þohte [OE Julius mid geþohte] on hire sihðe isett.
c1225 Worcester Glosses to Old Eng. Homilies in Anglia (1928) 52 22 Smeaungum : þouhte.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2254 Quanne Iosep hem alle sag, Kinde ðhogt in his herte was.
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. v. l. 513 Þise Ribaudes..repente hem..Þat euere þei wratthed þe..in worde, þouȝte, or dedes.
?c1425 Crafte Nombrynge in R. Steele Earliest Arithm. in Eng. (1922) 28 (MED) Here he teches þe to multiplie be þowȝt figures in þi mynde.
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 492 Thowhte, or thynkynge, cogitacio.
1509 tr. A. de la Sale Fyftene Ioyes of Maryage (de Worde) (new ed.) vi. sig. G.iijv For tho this wyfe be wele & wante ryȝt nought yet euer wyll she set her mynde and thought To brynge her husbande into wo and care.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 280/2 Thought, the laboryng of the mynde, cogitation, pensee.
1622 R. Aylett Peace with her Foure Garders v. 55 Dim not your pure, sublime, most glorious light, With lustfull thought, or wanton cogitation, But spend the honour of your Furies might, In holy, sweete, transcendent Contemplation.
1638 J. Milton Lycidas in Obsequies 25 in Justa Edouardo King With eager thought warbling his Dorick lay.
1704 J. Norris Ess. Ideal World II. iii. 102 Whether Brutes are capable of thought?
1795 W. Paley View Evidences Christianity (ed. 3) II. iii. viii. 413 Thought..can be completely suspended, and completely restored.
1816 Ld. Byron Parisina xx, in Siege of Corinth 88 And o'er that fair broad brow were wrought The intersected lines of thought.
1853 C. Kingsley Hypatia I. xiv. 296 The pale..student, oppressed with the weight of careful thought.
a1866 J. Grote Exam. Utilit. Philos. (1870) 2 The line of thought which endeavours to construct a system of morals..from observation and experience of fact alone.
1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) IV. 270 Psychology..analyses the transition from sense to thought.
1929 Philos. Rev. 38 563 A self, a conscious experience capable of thought.
1951 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 277 80/2 The Marxist dogma that there is only one ‘correct’ line of thought and action.
1982 G. S. Halford Devel. of Thought iii. 46 The acquisition of transformational grammar occurs at approximately the time in the child's development when he becomes capable of thought.
2004 J. Wolfreys Thinking Difference p.xxi The place..where thinking or thought might be said to come to a halt because the very notion of difference is identified in an instrumental or formalist fashion.
b. As a function or attribute of a living being: thinking as a permanent characteristic or condition; the capacity to think; the faculty by which a person thinks. In early use often nearly: mind (cf. sense 5).
ΚΠ
OE (Northumbrian) Lindisf. Gospels: Matt. xxii. 37 Diliges dominum deum tuum ex toto corde tuo et ex tota anima tua et in tota mente tua : lufa drihten god ðinne of alle hearte ðine & of alle sauele ðine & in alle ðoht ðinne.
OE (Northumbrian) Lindisf. Gospels: Mark v. 15 Uident illum qui a dæmonio uexabatur sedentem uestitum et sane mentis : gesegon hine uel ðene seðe from diowle gebered wæs sittende gecladed uel gegerelad & hales ðohtes.
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 71 Gif we hauen on ure þoht to shewen him ure sinnes,..we ben clensed of ure sinnes.
a1350 in G. L. Brook Harley Lyrics (1968) 70 (MED) Euer ant oo, nyht ant day, he haueþ vs in is þohte; he nul nout leose þat he so deore bohte.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 25598 Do wickednes vte of vr thoght.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 22166 (MED) Þai sal be studiand in þair thoght [Gött. thouth, Coll. Phys. þoȝte], Queþer þat he be crist or nai.
c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Wife of Bath's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 1056 Greet was the wo the knyght hadde in his thoght.
c1450 (c1400) Emaré (1908) l. 223 Alle hys hert and alle hys þowȝth, Her to loue was yn browght.
c1475 Wisdom (Folger) (1969) l. 955 Put yt, Lorde, into my thowte.
1488 (c1478) Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace (Adv.) (1968–9) i. l. 251 With hewy cheyr and sorowfull in thocht.
1597 T. Middleton Wisdome of Solomon Paraphr. ii. sig. Dv Blinde euery function of a mortall eye, Disarme the bodies powers of vitall might, Rob heart of thought, make liuing life to die.
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xx. 44 Had he beene where he thought by this had thought beene past. View more context for this quotation
1697 R. Blackmore King Arthur viii. 220 They by their Operations must conclude They are with Life, and Thought, and Choice endu'd, And hence the Intellectual World is known, While we conceive their Nature by our own.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) at Difference The difference of a Body is impenetrable Extension, and the difference of a Spirit is Cogitation or Thought.
1830 Ld. Tennyson Deserted House i Life and Thought have gone away.
1877 E. R. Conder Basis of Faith i. 8 Thought, feeling, will, are the three strands of the triple cord of life.
1946 W. M. Ivins Art & Geom. ii. 27 Lovely as the Venus of Melos may be, she is the final epitome of all the dumbness of all the Dumb Doras—utterly devoid of thought, emotion, and expression.
1976 Canberra Times 23 Aug. 2/8 The ability to transcend thought is acquired by the application of concentrated mind to a single point, pratyahara.
2003 J. Williams Gilles Deleuze's Difference & Repetition v. 118 How are different faculties united by the faculty of thought?
c. The product of mental action or effort; what a person thinks; that which is in the mind or is an expression of what is in the mind.
ΚΠ
OE Vercelli Homilies (1992) xxii. 368 Eala þæt ic wæs þæs heardestan geþohtes mann & þæs forcuðestan, þæt ic me mine dagas to nytte ne gedyde þa hwile þe ic on worulde wæs!]
c1175 ( Nativity of Virgin (Bodl.) in B. Assmann Angelsächsische Homilien u. Heiligenleben (1889) 127 Heo wæs eadmodre & on godes lufe glædre & on þohte clænre [OE Hatton on hyre geþohtum clænre].., þone ænig wære.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 2577 Forr hire þohht. & hire word. & hire weorrc wass clene.
a1300 in C. Brown Eng. Lyrics 13th Cent. (1932) 115 Þu þe wost al ure þoucht.
c1300 St. Thomas Becket (Laud) l. 1188 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 140 (MED) He rounede in is wiues ere and tolde hire al is þouȝt.
?a1425 Mandeville's Trav. (Egerton) (1889) 59 (MED) Oure Lord takes mare hede to thoȝt þan to word.
c1480 (a1400) St. Peter 424 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 19 Cum furth, and say þi thoucht and ded but delay.
1560 Bible (Geneva) Psalms cxxxix. 2 Thou vnderstandest my thoght afarre of.
1593 T. Lodge Phillis sig. G3 A will to speake, a feare to tell the thought, To hope for all, yet for dispaire to die, Is of my life the certaine destenie.
1613 E. Cary Trag. Mariam iii. iii. sig. E2v Though you regard not what Sohemus saith, Yet will I euer freely speake my thought.
1676 G. Etherege Man of Mode iv. ii. 73 I shall not Flatter you, Sir Fopling, there is not much thought in't. But 'tis passionate and well turn'd.
a1719 J. Addison Dialogues Medals in Wks. (1721) I. i. 439 One..may often find as much thought on the reverse of a Medal as in a Canto of Spenser.
1734 A. Pope Satires of Horace ii. ii. 129 Thus Bethel spoke, who always speaks his thought.
1822 ‘B. Cornwall’ Flood of Thessaly ii. 553 Those wondrous letters..By which bright thought was in its quick flight stopp'd And saved from perishing.
1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind iv. 68 Thought is not even present to the thinker, till he has set it forth out of himself.
1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 79 But the airman has experience of what the aeroplane crews must be going through, and his thought is all for them.
1953 T. K. Quinn Giant Business ii. 30 ‘You cannot control your thought,’ a proclaimant insisted.
2007 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 27 Sept. 38/2 Thus Pinker rejects the doctrine of ‘linguistic determinism’, which holds that thought is nothing other than the result of the language we happen to speak.
d. With possessive in a collective sense: the intellectual activity or mental product of a named person or persons. Also with defining adjective: the ideas characteristic of thinkers of a particular type, school, religion, time, or place, or of a particular field of study; what is or has been thought by the philosophers, scholars, or students of a specified time, place, subject, etc.Higher, New Thought: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > [noun] > system or theory
secta1387
philosophyc1387
scheme1690
thought1692
thought system1845
new thinking1853
thought structure1867
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > systematic structure > of particular person
thought1692
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > [noun]
philosophy1531
science1831
thoughta1853
1692 tr. Clement of Alexandria in J. Dunton Young-students-libr. 375/2 Some Reflections on the thought of Plato.
1720 J. Smedley Familiar Epist. Charles Earl of Sutherland 7 Whether recorded be the Lore In Ancient Archives dusty Store; Or, whether to the Height are brought Sciences, by Modern Thought.
1836 N. Amer. Rev. Apr. 370 He is allowed to form his judgment by comparing the master-pieces of antiquity, with the kindred works, which have upon them the freshness and glow of modern thought.
1847 G. Gilfillan in Tait's Edinb. Mag. 14 362 Her poetry is not..the express image of her religious thought.
a1853 F. W. Robertson Lect. (1858) 228 Wordsworth is the type of English thought.
1856 N. Brit. Rev. 26 39 Modern Thought, regarded as the opposite and the antagonist of an unexceptive submission to the authority of Holy Scripture.
1884 F. Temple Relations Relig. & Sci. (1885) v. 132 The leaders of scientific thought.
1903 P. Shorey (title) The unity of Plato's thought.
1935 R. B. Perry (title) The thought and character of William James as revealed in unpublished correspondence and notes, together with his published writings.
1951 A. Passerin D'Entrèves Nat. Law 15 The belief in natural law..was..the distinguishing mark of political thought in Western Europe.
1968 in J. Gray & P. Cavendish Chinese Communism in Crisis 222 A force of revolutionised workers, armed with the thought of Mao Tse-tung, has been trained and tempered.
1992 J. L. Esposito Islamic Threat iv. 81 The Green Book championed many of the themes common to Arab nationalism and contemporary Islamic thought.
2005 Times Lit. Suppl. 29 Apr. 10/1 It is this nose for density and irregularity of things, their distinctive, untotalizable tones and textures, that links Wittgenstein's thought to the great European tradition of realist fiction.
2.
a. A single act or product of thinking; an item of mental activity; something that a person thinks or has thought; a thing that is in the mind, an expression of what is in the mind; an idea, notion.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun]
thank735
thoughtOE
i-thankc1000
cogitation?c1225
pensee1474
pensée1886
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > a thought, thoughts
thoughtOE
i-thankc1000
thinkingsa1225
pensee1474
considering1483
consideration1489
panse1568
reflect1594
reflection1648
thought-form1850
thought-product1853
thought-entity1868
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of ideation > idea, notion, or concept > [noun]
thoughtOE
thingOE
conceita1393
imagea1393
concept1479
conception1526
suppositiona1529
idee1542
idea1585
conceivement1599
project1600
representationa1602
notion1607
phantasma1620
conceptus1643
species1644
notice1654
revolution1675
representamen1677
vorstellung1807
brain-stuff1855
ideation1876
think1886
artefact1923
construct1933
mind1966
OE (Mercian) Rushw. Gospels: Matt. ix. 4 Et cum uidisset iesus cogitationes eorum dixit eis ut quid cogitatis mala in cordibus uestris : & þa geseende ðohtas heora cwæþ to heom forhwon þencaþ ge yfel in heortum eowrum.
OE Vercelli Homilies (1992) xxii. 375 Geclænsa ðu þin mod fram yfelum geþohtum & gebrideligað eow fram þæs lichoman scionesse þæt eowre þohtas [syn] clæne & hlutre.
a1225 (c1200) Vices & Virtues (1888) 11 Ic not ȝif ich auerȝete ani ðing dede ðat ic nolde habbe sumes kennes lean, oðer of ðouhtes oðer of wordes oðer of weorkes.
c1350 Psalter (BL Add. 17376) in K. D. Bülbring Earliest Compl. Eng. Prose Psalter (1891) cxxxviii. 2 (MED) Þou vnderstonde mi þoȝutes fram fer.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 27101 Vr thoghtes ar þai be thoght..he seis.
c1451 J. Capgrave Life St. Gilbert (1910) 86 Occupied with orisones and meditaciones to avoyde euel þoutes.
1557 Bible (Whittingham) 2 Cor. x. 5 Wherwith we..bringe into captiuitie euery thoght, to the obedience of Christe.
a1568 King H. Steward in Bann. Poems (Hunterian Club) 706 Gif cairfull thoftis restoir My havy hairt.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Othello (1622) iii. iii. 166 Oth. I'le know thy thought. Iag. You cannot, if my heart were in your hand, Nor shall not, whilst tis in my custody. View more context for this quotation
1645 T. Fuller (title) Good thoughts in bad times.
1711 A. Pope Ess. Crit. 22 The last..Couplet fraught With some unmeaning Thing they call a Thought.
1757 T. Gray Ode I iii. iii, in Odes 11 Thoughts, that breathe, and words, that burn.
1807 W. Wordsworth Ode in Poems II. 158 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. View more context for this quotation
1824 L.-M. Hawkins Annaline I. 344 I will collect my scattered thoughts.
1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) V. 28 A similar thought is repeated in the Laws.
1891 ‘J. S. Winter’ Lumley i. 2 Here I'm idle and haven't a thought in my head—there my brain positively teems with ideas.
1934 H. Roth Call it Sleep iii. iv. 222 His thoughts rambled absently between the confines of the drone of the voice and the drone of the rain.
1967 tr. Mao Zedong (title) The thoughts of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung.
1982 Sunday Tel. 7 Mar. 10/2 Between 1928 and 1941 there were less than 5,000 prosecutions [in Japan] for ‘dangerous thoughts’.
2006 H. Engel There was Old Woman xi. 82 He went on and on... His thoughts weren't all that clear.
b. spec. An idea suggested or recalled to the mind by a situation, observation, or previous idea; a reflection, a consideration.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of ideation > idea, notion, or concept > [noun] > occupying the mind
thoughta1250
apprehension1579
intellection1579
reflect1594
notion1603
idea1633
reflection1648
presentment1817
earthly1897
OE tr. Theodulf of Orleans Capitula (Corpus Cambr.) xxi. 329 Geþence he ymbe ures Drihtenes þrowunge..: Þonne mæg he mid þissum geþohte geflyman þa yfelan geþohtas ond of his mode afyrran.]
a1250 Ureisun ure Louerde (Nero) in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 203 (MED) Hwi ne bi-hold ich þis euer in mine heorte and þenche ðet hit was for me..þis þoht wolde sikerliche ontenden so soð luue on me.
1570 E. Elviden Neweyeres Gift sig. Aiiijv Then your thoughtes consyderyng of Your trauell and your payne, Comparyng both in your attempt Your domage, and your gayne: You lothe to thynke what yrksome toyle..You dayly must forbare.
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard II v. v. 28 Like seely beggars, Who sitting in the stockes refuge their shame, That many haue, and others must set there. And in this thought they find a kind of ease. View more context for this quotation
1665 R. Boyle Occas. Refl. v. v. sig. Kk8 This..is onely to tell us, what you observ'd, not what Reflections you made upon it, and..that which I was inquisitive after, was your Thoughts.
1685 A. Behn Love Lett. between Noble-man & Sister: 2nd Pt. 264 I blush and guild the Paper with their reflections, at the thought of an incounter like this before I am half enough secur'd of your heart?
1754 S. Fielding & J. Collier Cry I. ii. 221 He could not bear the thought of his children's considering him at that age as a man of intrigue, without a secret pain.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian xii, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. III. 326 The thoughts that ye hae intervened to spare the puir thing's life will be sweeter in that hour..than [etc.].
1861 C. Dickens Great Expectations xxiv, in All Year Round 9 Mar. 510/1 While he was putting up the other cast and coming down from the chair, the thought crossed my mind that all his personal jewellery was derived from like sources.
1884 H. R. Haggard Dawn II. xii. 163 Comforted..by the thought that he had given Mrs. Carr a Roland for her Oliver.
1932 P. G. Wodehouse Hot Water xvii. 282 The thought that a girl capable of thinking up a fast one like that should be madly throwing herself away on Blair Eggleston..was infinitely saddening.
1961 N. Roy Black Albino v. 131 As his hands closed around the unresisting man's throat, a thought occurred to him.
2007 Guardian 18 Jan. (G2 section) 20/2 A thought occurred to me as I was hosing the mud off my cyclocross bike for the umpteenth time this winter: whatever became of my cone spanners?
c. With modifying adjective: a reaction, response, or reflection in a specified place in a sequence. See also second thoughts at second adj. and n.2 Compounds 1, and cf. sense 6b.
ΚΠ
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ix. 213 Now advise Or hear what to my mind first thoughts present. View more context for this quotation
1733 E. Rowe Let. 9 May in Works (1796) IV. 188 Whatever I think of seeing your Ladyship once more, the first thought sets a scene of pleasure in my view.
1820 T. Jefferson Let. 22 Apr. in Writings (1984) 1434 The cession of that kind of property..is a bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought.
1855 R. Browning Childe Roland i My first thought was, he lied in every word.
1893 New Eng. Mag. Sept. 88/2 His ‘sober second thought’ decided him to face the music, confess his fault and make the best of it.
1915 T. Burke Nights in Town 179 When I received the invitation to the whist-drive at Surbiton my first thought was, ‘Not likely!’
1963 H. Watkinson in European Yearbk. (Council of Europe) X. 39 Whether we can breed true N.A.T.O. projects from the initial thoughts and theories of our scientific and military advisers.
1987 R. Mistry Auspicious Occasion in Tales from Firozsha Baag (1992) 12 Her own children..did not give a second thought to these things.
1994 P. Baker Blood Posse ii. 17 My immediate thought was that Paul had taken advantage of the dark to grab some of the flaunting miniskirt ass that teased our sexual appetites.
2007 S. Worboyes Lipstick & Powder iii. 56 Anna's first thought was that she looked like a shop model except that she was pressing the keys of an adding machine and tilling up the takings.
d. spec. In singular: an idea worth considering; a plausible or interesting suggestion. Often in it's (also there's, etc.) a thought, used to express approval of a comment or suggestion; cf. it's an idea at idea n. Phrases 5.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > possibility > [noun] > a possible thing or circumstance
possibilityc1460
perhapsa1535
potential1587
potentiality1587
maybe1598
contingencya1626
contingent1655
conceivable1659
possiblea1674
conceptiblea1676
cogitable1678
chance1778
it's an idea1841
may1849
might1850
thought1857
possibly1881
shot1923
1857 H. Melville Confidence-man vii. 60 Quite a thought. But, pray explain it.
1871 W. H. Codrington Under the Earth iii. iv. 242 ‘What, murder the individual? Do you think the individual has been foully dealt by?’ ‘It is a thought.’
1922 J. Galsworthy Family Man in Plays (1923) iii. i. 91 Quite a thought, Cook! Quite a thought!
1980 J. Ditton Copley's Hunch ii. iii. 154 ‘It's a thought, sir.’.. ‘If so, it doesn't help us.’
1997 Jewish Press 7 Feb. 5 Maybe they [sc. sensationalist tabloids] ought to be hidden from general view, like some places do with ‘girlie’ magazines. Now there's a thought.
2005 S. Guttenplan Objects of Metaphor ii. 73 One thought might be: cases of qualification may well be ubiquitous, but the fact that they require so much stage-setting suggests that they are not somehow central to what we take predication to be.
3. Conception, imagination, fancy.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > [noun]
sightc1175
thoughtc1175
imagination1340
thinking1340
conceptiona1387
imaginativea1398
phantasm1490
concept1536
fetch1549
conceit1556
conceiving1559
fancy1581
notion1647
fantastic1764
ideality1815
ideoplasty1884
phantastikon1917
c1175 ( Ælfric's Homily on Nativity of Christ (Bodl. 343) in A. O. Belfour 12th Cent. Homilies in MS Bodl. 343 (1909) 88 Swa raðe swa heo iheræð þare burge name þe heo ær cuðe, swa ræðe heo mæg þa burh on hire þohte sceawian [OE Julius on hire geþohte gescyppan] hwylc heo bið.
c1330 Sir Degare (Auch.) l. 658 in W. H. French & C. B. Hale Middle Eng. Metrical Romances (1930) 307 His ȝonge bride þat gan here And al for þout chaunged hire chere..ȝhe knew þo gloues.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Coll. Phys.) l. 21630 Mar miȝtis hauis ur lauerd wroȝt Than ani man mai þinc in thoȝt.
1483 ( tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage of Soul (Caxton) iii. x. f. lvj The grete horrour therof may not be..declared by..thought of mannes herte.
1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. C4 Within his thought her heauenly image sits. View more context for this quotation
1595 S. Daniel First Fowre Bks. Ciuile Warres ii. viii. sig. G3v What he imagind neuer could be wrought Is powrd vpon him, farre beyond his thought.
1602 J. Marston Hist. Antonio & Mellida i. sig. C I long beyond all thought, To know the man.
1671 J. Milton Samson Agonistes 117 O change beyond report, thought, or belief. View more context for this quotation
1742 W. Collins Persian Eclogues ii. 12 When Thought creates unnumber'd Scenes of Woe.
1798 H. Brand Huniades v. viii, in Plays & Poems 134 By sending Thee, whom I had mourn'd as dead, Was beyond thought.
1842 Ld. Tennyson Miller's Daughter (rev. ed.) in Poems (new ed.) I. 114 With blessings beyond hope or thought.
1850 Ld. Tennyson In Memoriam lxviii. 96 In shadowy thoroughfares of thought . View more context for this quotation
1897 J. A. Hammerton Actor's Art i. viii.78 How rapturous the satisfaction of abandoning himself..to his author's grandest flights of thought and noblest bursts of emotional inspiration!
1906 G. Young tr. Sophocles Antigone in Dramas 11 Heaven be praised, I am in safety, past all thought or dream!
1999 S. J. May in W. L. Andrews & N. Y. McKay Toni Morrison's Beloved 26 For once, reality surpassed the wildest thought of fiction.
4.
a. Consideration, attention, heed, care, regard.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > attention > [noun]
gomec1175
thoughtc1175
tenta1300
curec1300
intentc1320
keepa1325
heed1357
attendancec1374
attentionc1374
aspect1393
marka1400
notea1400
advertencea1413
markingc1443
regard1457
advertisementc1487
noticec1487
attent?a1500
advertation?c1500
respect1509
garda1569
intendiment1590
on-waiting1590
attend1594
tendment1597
attending1611
fixationa1631
adversion1642
heeding1678
attendancya1680
perpensity1704
observe1805
intending1876
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 11920 All hiss þohht iss æfre..to brinngenn menn. Vt off þe rihhte weȝȝe.
c1275 (?c1250) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) l. 492 (MED) Vor he ne recþ noȝt of clennesse Al his þoȝt is of golnesse.
c1300 St. Mary Magdalen (Laud) l. 55 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 463 (MED) Lazarus spendede al is þouȝht op-on his chiualerie; Of oþur þingus ne tok he no ȝeme, ne to housebondrie.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 1563 On al thinges was mare þair thoght [Gött. thout], þan was on drightin þat al wroght.
c1430 (c1395) G. Chaucer Legend Good Women (Cambr. Gg.4.27) (1879) Prol. l. 353 This schulde a ryghtwys lord han in his thouȝt.
?1521 A. Barclay Bk. Codrus & Mynalcas sig. cii The wytte thus dyeth of poetes auncyent So dothe their writyng and deties eloquent For lacke of custome thought care and penury.
1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iii. i. 87 And thus the natiue hiew of resolution Is sickled ore with the pale cast of thought . View more context for this quotation
1684 Earl of Roscommon Ess. Translated Verse 11 Pride..Proceeds from Ignorance, and want of Thought.
1747 T. Gray Ode Eton Coll. 8 Thought would destroy their Paradise.
1776 Dk. Richmond in Burke's Corr. (1844) II. 113 I suppose you lounge away whole months whistling for want of thought.
1833 Times 10 Apr. 5/3 This is want of thought and reflection.
a1844 T. Hood in Hood's Mag. & Comic Misc. Feb. 108 Evil is wrought by want of Thought, As well as want of Heart!
1894 Econ. Jrnl. 4 516 Some have complained of my want of thought, and remarked in a general way that my references are wrong.
1932 Collier's 9 Jan. 36/3 Little thought had been given to any damage done her underplanking by the pounding of the foremast in the heavy seaway.
1977 R. Lyle & P. H. Simpson Archit. of Hist. Lexington 9 There was little thought given to the topography or the aesthetics of the new town.
2004 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 18 Mar. 16 A bit of thought into what goes into a newspaper would be appreciated by me and others who also have kids approaching the pressure stages in their life.
b. Meditation, mental contemplation or concentration. Also formerly: †perplexity, puzzled condition of mind (obsolete). See also Phrases 5.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > continued thinking, reflection, contemplation > [noun]
thoughta1387
consideration1388
contemplationc1390
meditationa1393
musinga1393
speculationa1450
studier1472
musea1500
recollection1576
contemplature1580
rumination1585
contemplating1587
amuse1606
meditating1609
theory1611
meditancea1625
amusement1694
cogitabundation1729
cogibundity1734
cogitabundity1744
think1834
recueillement1845
thunk1922
noodling1942
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 311 To brynge here hertes out of þouȝt þat hereþ speke of laborintus, here I telle what laborinthus is to menynge.
a1400 Psalter (Vesp.) cxviii. 97 in C. Horstmann Yorkshire Writers (1896) II. 254 Hou luued .i., lauerd, þi lagh ai! Mi thoghte es it al þe dai.
c1475 (a1400) Sir Amadace (Taylor) in J. Robson Three Early Eng. Metrical Romances (1842) 35 On the dede cors, that lay on bere, Ful myculle his thoȝte was on!
1581 T. Howell His Deuises sig. I.iiijv What hart can choose but pine away, in plaint & pensiue thought?
1611 W. Mure Misc. Poems ii. 13 Perceauing me in thot perplex'd.
1717 A. Pope Leaving Town in Wks. 374 In pensive thought recall the fancy'd scene.
1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 186 In the middle of these Cogitations, Apprehensions and Reflections, it came into my Thought one Day, that all this might be a meer Chimera of my own.
1762 Ld. Kames Elements Crit. I. xiv. 93 By removing the object out of thought, it vanisheth with its desire and pain of want.
1842 Ld. Tennyson Lord of Burleigh in Poems (new ed.) II. 202 From deep thought himself he rouses.
1861 A. Trollope Orley Farm (1862) I. v. 36 But there was sorrow at her heart, and deep thought in her mind.
1970 R. Mookerji Men & Thought in Anc. India (ed. 3) ii. 32 That [sc. the birth of a son] was the occasion for great rejoicing in the city, but to him for much pensive thought, as it brought home to him the tie that bound him to the world.
1985 S. Stein Touch of Treason (2000) 19 Immediately his thought was on the work at the point he had left off on the preceding day.
II. In various senses corresponding to think v.2 II.
†5. Remembrance, a person's memory or mind. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > memory > [noun] > act of remembering, recollection
minOE
thoughtc1175
memorya1275
minninga1325
bethinking1340
record1340
recording1340
remembrancec1350
memoriala1382
rememberinga1382
minsing?a1400
rememorancea1438
mindingc1449
remembrancingc1449
rememorationc1449
resouvenancec1450
umbethinkingc1450
sovenance1477
memoration1562
reminiscence1589
recollecting1604
rememorating1606
recollection1633
evocation1646
recall1651
recordancy1654
anamnesis1656
membrance1827
reliving1919
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 8972 Leȝȝde itt all to samenn aȝȝ Inn hire þohhtess arrke.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 6553 Of alle is proute dedes i ne may uorbere noȝt, Þat ine mot ȝou telle of on, nou it comeþ in mi þoȝt.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Gött.) l. 24042 [T]o domes-dai liue if i moght, Ne ȝode it neuer vte of mi thoght.
a1475 Sidrak & Bokkus (Lansd.) (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Washington) (1965) l. 3339 (MED) If..oone..Haue any man gretly in þoght..Þat seed may take likenesse parcas Of him þat her þoght in was.
1573 I. Whitney Sweet Nosgay sig. Diiiv So might thy cares in tyme, be banisht out of thought.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) iv. iv. 33 I, and my Brother are not knowne; your selfe So out of thought,..Cannot be question'd. View more context for this quotation
1655 R. Fanshawe tr. L. de Camoens Lusiad i. xxiv. 6 If the much Vertue of the valiant Line, Of Lutus be not worn out of your Thought.
6.
a. The entertaining of some project in the mind; the idea or notion of doing something, as contemplated or entertained in the mind; (hence) intention, purpose, design; esp. imperfect or half-formed intention. With negative expressed or implied: not the least intention or notion of doing something. Also in plural as to have thoughts (of). Cf. think v.2 8.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > intention > [noun]
willOE
thought?c1225
willing1340
intentionc1430
OE Beowulf (2008) 610 Gehyrde on Beowulfe folces hyrde fæstrædne geþoht.]
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 52 Efter þe echȝe kimeð þe þocht, & þer efter þe dede.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 1153 Ðis maidenes deden it in god dhogt.
c1390 Castle of Love (Vernon) (1967) l. 4 (MED) Nas neuere good werk wrouȝt Wiþoute beginninge of good þouȝt.
a1450 Castle Perseverance (1969) l. 577 Of worldly good is al hys þouth.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Jer. xxix. 11 I knowe, what I haue deuysed for you... My thoughtes are to geue you peace, & not trouble.
1581 T. Howell His Deuises sig. E.iij That nowe on this, and then on that, in minde I still deuise. Among great thoughts throwne vp, I downe will set the least.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) iv. i. 220 I do begin to haue bloody thoughts . View more context for this quotation
1665 R. Boyle Occas. Refl. vi. iii. sig. Nn4 Your Friend Mr. Boyle..was saying, that he had thoughts of making a short Romantick story.
1700 W. Congreve Way of World iii. i. 47 I have Thoughts to tarry a small matter in Town, to learn somewhat of your Lingo.
1769 F. Brooke Hist. Emily Montague II. cv. 156 He declares he had no thought of displeasing me at the governor's.
a1771 T. Gray in London Mag. (1781) 52 296 Satan's self had thoughts of taking orders.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian xii, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. IV. 254 Knock says his Grace has no thought to buy it.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vi. 76 All thought of returning to the policy of the Triple Alliance was abandoned.
1895 S. R. Crockett Men of Moss-hags xxv. 185 I had given up all thought of escape, and was putting in hard steeks at the praying.
1935 G. Santayana Let. 9 May (2001) V. 191 I had some thought of waiting until I had a proof of the English edition.
1968 G. Daws Shoal of Time iv. 136 We have never had, nor will we ever have, any thought of establishing over the Sandwich Islands a protectorate either direct or indirect.
1997 C. A. Small Voyages ii. vi. 113 She had no thoughts of taking them to court.
2006 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 24 Oct. b8/6 The timing was nearly identical to that of ‘Mystic River’... Any thought of a similar platform release a week or two ago was dropped.
b. With modifying adjective: a determination, decision, or purpose in a specified place in a sequence. Cf. sense 2c.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > [noun]
doomc950
redeOE
lookingc1300
assizec1314
judging1357
definitionc1384
man's dayc1384
termination1395
discretiona1400
discussiona1425
decidingc1443
judicial1447
decisionc1454
arbitry1489
determinationa1513
determining1530
decerninga1535
discuss1556
discussment1559
thought1579
decernment1586
arbitrage1601
dijudication1615
crisis1623
decidementa1640
determinatinga1640
discernment1646
syndication1650
judication1651
dijudicatinga1656
adjudicature1783
call1902
1579 G. Fenton tr. F. Guicciardini Hist. Guicciardin x. 568 Moreouer following still their firste thoughtes to oppose agaynst the French men, they gaue order that the vauntgarde should returne to the lodging where it was before.
1705 C. Cibber Careless Husband v. v. 57 Nor can I..Reconcile to Reason your first Thoughts of venturing upon marriage with me.
1799 Llewellin III. vi. 183 My first thought..was to proceed according to legal forms against the Heaven abandoned homicides.
1860 Harper's Mag. Sept. 549/2 Despite of all the by-play of repelling tendencies, the great heart of the Anglo-Saxon race is impassioned in behalf of fellowship. To nucleate is its first and last thought.
1891 T. Hardy First Countess of Wessex in Fiddler of Reels & Other Stories 1888–1900 (2002) 68 Her original thought had been to write an affirmative reply to Reynard.
1960 H. H. Harman Mod. Factor Anal. xvii. 372 The immediate thought was to assume m = 2.
1975 H. Richardson Skarra i. i. 10 His last thought was to hammer the plug into the bung to save his Scotch.
1994 F. Capie et al. Future of Central Banking p. xiii Our original thought had been to study central banking through time.
7. Mental anticipation, expectation; an instance of this. Now mostly with negative expressed or implied.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > [noun]
to-hopec888
weenOE
hopea1225
thoughta1350
opiniona1425
attentc1430
looking1440
presume?a1500
beliefa1522
expectation1527
expection1532
looking for1532
looking after?1537
expecting1568
imagination1582
expectance1593
suppose1596
expect1597
expectancy1609
apprehensiona1616
contemplationa1631
prospect1665
supposition1719
speculationa1797
augury1871
preperception1871
a1350 ( in R. H. Robbins Hist. Poems 14th & 15th Cent. (1959) 19 Þo [= when] he wes in scotlond, lutel wes ys þoht Of þe harde iugement þat him wes bysoht In stounde.
1576 G. Whetstone Castle of Delight in Rocke of Regard 44 These newes poore Rinaldo was like ynough to credite, himselfe seing such apparaunte proofe thereof, yea hee credited them so farre, as hee could not away with any thought of hope.
1595 S. Daniel First Fowre Bks. Ciuile Warres i. xcv. sig. F He that had no thought so hie to clime, (With sauoring comfort still allur'd along).
1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 i. iii. 30 Flattring himselfe in proiect of a power, Much smaller then the smallest of his thoughts . View more context for this quotation
1611 Bible (King James) Psalms xlix. 11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for euer. View more context for this quotation
1677 M. Hale Contempl. ii. 127 I had thoughts to find repose there.
1715 D. Defoe Family Instructor I. i. i. 12 'Tis a Signal that he has no Thought of Mercy in Store for them.
1810 I. Harby Gordian Knot iv. iii. 67 If, with no thought of meeting Madalena,—You entered the convent,—why, to what end, Did you go there at all?
1883 G. Hamilton in E. C. Rollins New Eng. Bygones Pref. 1 This book is published with no thought of an audience.
1921 B. G. Brawley Short Hist. Eng. Drama xi. lxxix. 198 Some writers..deliberately wrote dramas with no thought of ever seeing them actually produced on the stage. Thus arose the ‘closet drama’.
1992 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 28 May 23/1 There are the early picture-letters written to the children of friends with no thought of publication.
III. Extended senses.
8.
a. Anxiety or distress of mind; solicitude; grief, sorrow, trouble, care, vexation. Chiefly English regional (northern) and Scottish in later use. Now rare or archaic.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of being upset or perturbed > worry > anxiety > [noun]
mourningeOE
businessOE
busyOE
carefulnessa1000
carec1000
howc1000
embeþonkc1200
thought?c1250
cark1330
curea1340
exercisec1386
solicitude?a1412
pensienessc1450
anxietya1475
fear1490
thought-taking1508
pensement1516
carp1548
caring1556
hoe1567
thoughtfulness1569
carking1583
caretaking1625
anxiousness1636
solicitousness1636
concern1692
solicitation1693
anxietude1709
twitchiness1834
uptightness1969
?c1250 in C. Brown Eng. Lyrics 13th Cent. (1932) 236 (MED) Awre Mo is mi lif and ic in grete þovte; i þencke of hire þat al hure blisse hus broþte.
a1300 (c1275) Physiologus (1991) l. 502 He suggeden & sorȝeden & weren in ðoȝt Wu he miȝten him helpen ovt [read oȝt].
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 1433 Ysaac..wunede ðor in ðogt and care For moderes dead and sondes fare.
?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) ii. 85 Þe kyng had fulle grete þouht, his reame ageyn him ros.
a1450 Castle Perseverance (1969) l. 292 I stonde and stodye al ful of þowth.
c1503 Nutbrown Maid in R. Arnold Chron. f. lxxvv To make thought your labur were in vayne.
1556 J. Ponet Shorte Treat. Politike Power sig. Iiij v Wriothesley..either poisoned himself, or pyned awaye for thought.
1608 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Serres Gen. Inventorie Hist. France (1611) 270 Valentine, Duchesse of Orleans (seeing her paines lost..) dies for thought within few daies after.
1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 871 Soto died of thought in Florida.
1649 O. Cromwell in T. Carlyle Lett. & Speeches (1871) II. 188 How many considerable ones we have lost, is no little thought of heart to us.
1869 R. B. Peacock Gloss. Dial. Hundred of Lonsdale Thought, sorrow, sadness, grief.
1905 C. C. Robinson in Eng. Dial. Dict. VI. 102/2 [West Yorkshire] It was thought that did for her.
1934 Scots Mag. June 220 He's better o' himsel' but sair hauden doon wi' thocht.
1942 R. Frost Witness Tree 36 The story is she died of thought.
b. A cause or †feeling (in quot. 1485 perhaps an expression) of distress or anxiety; a worry, an annoyance. Now Scottish.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of being upset or perturbed > worry > anxiety > [noun] > cause of
solicitudes1490
care1590
thoughta1647
1485 W. Caxton tr. Paris & Vienne (1957) 39 Paris kyssed vyenne wyth grete syghes and thoughtes.
a1647 T. Hooker Surv. Summe Church-discipl. (1648) Pref. sig. A4v This is left as the subject of the inquiry of this age, and that which occasions great thoughts of heart of all hands: Great thoughts of heart in the Presbytery, as being very loth to part with that so chief priviledge.
1712 T. Blackwell Let. 2 Feb. in Misc. Spalding Club (1841) I. 209 Many a thought of heart have I had of late, what could be in Providence casting me here at such a desperate like juncture.
1887 D. Donaldson Jamieson's Sc. Dict. Suppl. Addenda That wild son has been a sair thocht..to his mother.
1895 S. R. Crockett in Cornhill Mag. Dec. 569 So mony bairn's things were just a cumber and a thocht to me.
1972 in Sc. National Dict. (1974) IX. 284/3 [Aberdeen] It's a thocht tae rise in this caul weather.
1985 M. Munro Patter 70 After a long break like that it's a thought goin back to your work.
9.
a. In singular: a very small amount, a very little, a trifle. Usually, and now almost always, adverbial.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > smallness of quantity, amount, or degree > small of quantity, amount, or degree [phrase] > to a small extent or a little
littlec1175
a litec1290
a little quantityc1330
little whata1387
wee1513
a whit1526
thought1581
a wee bita1661
a small (also little) matter1690
a trifle1859
a wheen1869
a taste1894
smitch1895
a lick1902
mite1939
a skosh1959
a tidge1959
a tad1969
the world > relative properties > quantity > smallness of quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > a small quantity or amount > a very small amount
shredc1000
farthingsworthc1325
pennyworthc1330
incha1350
sliverc1374
chipa1393
gnastc1440
Jack1530
spoonful1531
crumba1535
spark1548
slight1549
pin's worth1562
scruple1574
thought1581
pinch1583
scrap1583
splinter1609
ticket1634
notchet1637
indivisible1644
tinyc1650
twopence1691
turn of the scale(s)1706
enough to swear by1756
touch1786
scrimptiona1825
infinitesimal1840
smidgen1841
snuff1842
fluxion1846
smitchel1856
eyelash1860
smidge1866
tenpenceworth1896
whisker1913
tidge1986
1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xxxix. 205 The prince is a thought aboue him for all he be his brother in respect of old Adam.
1592 J. Lyly Gallathea iii. iii. sig. E1 The fortune of this Arte consisteth in the measure of the fire, for if there be a cole too much, or a sparke too little, if it be a little too hote, or a thought too softe, all our labour is in vaine.
1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing iii. iv. 13 I like the new tire..if the haire were a thought browner. View more context for this quotation
a1617 S. Hieron Penance for Sinne in Wks. (1620) II. 207 A wound may be giuen in a thought of time, which yet may be in healing aboue a yeere.
1629 J. Gaule Panegyrick 49 in Practique Theories Christs Predict. They are not currant, if they want the least Thought of a Graine.
1727 J. Swift Let. to Sheridan 12 Aug. My giddiness seized me,..I think I am a thought better.
1773 D. Garrick Chances i. vii. 9 Antonio, You are a thought too bloody.
1817 W. Scott Rob Roy I. iv. 88 He seems a thought rash.
1897 G. Allen Type-writer Girl xvii The champagne..was a thought too dry.
1923 G. Watson Roxburghshire Word-bk. at Thocht Gie's a thocht o' saut.
1933 E. Wharton Human Nature 30 The golden glints in her chestnut hair were a thought too golden.
1948 Scots Mag. June 213 The white shirt was a wee thought stiff for the studs.
1962 N. Coward Diary 2 July (2000) 508 She was marvellous and he, of course, remarkable, but a thought too pleased with himself.
1998 P. F. Strawson in L. E. Hahn Philos. P. F. Strawson ii. xiv. 291 Well, that is strong indeed. But perhaps a thought too strong.
b. U.S., Scottish, and Irish English (northern). A very short length of time, a moment. Usually in adverbial phrase.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > shortness or brevity in time > [noun] > moment or instant
hand-whileOE
prinkOE
start-while?c1225
twinkling1303
rese?c1335
prick1340
momenta1382
pointa1382
minutea1393
instant1398
braida1400
siquarea1400
twink14..
whip?c1450
movement1490
punct1513
pissing whilea1556
trice1579
turning of a hand1579
wink1585
twinklec1592
semiquaver1602
punto1616
punctilio of time1620
punctum1620
breathing1625
instance1631
tantillation1651
rapc1700
crack1725
turning of a straw1755
pig's whisper1780
jiffy1785
less than no time1788
jiff1797
blinka1813
gliffy1820
handclap1822
glimpsea1824
eyewink1836
thought1836
eye-blink1838
semibreve1845
pop1847
two shakes of a lamb's taila1855
pig's whistle1859
time point1867
New York minute1870
tick1879
mo?1896
second1897
styme1897
split-second1912
split minute1931
no-time1942
sec.1956
1836 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 45/2 He himself would have eulogized the celerity of the operation. In a thought he felt himself rocking in a cradle: the plashing of oars convinced him of his error: he was on ‘the wide and open sea’.
1850 G. H. Boker Anne Boleyn v. i. 177 Nay, my dear Henry, shrink not for a thought.
1912 L. J. Vance Destroying Angel xi. 142 Suddenly she turned her head and intercepted his whole-hearted stare. For a thought wonder glimmered in the violet eyes.
1923 G. Watson Roxburghshire Word-bk. at Thocht Wait a thocht.
1937 in J. S. Hall Sayings from Old Smoky (1972) 122 A panther was attracted by the frying venison. In just a thought or two it came out and screamed.
1949 H. Hornsby Lonesome Valley 59 Johnny loved to hear the screech owl, except that when the scream came unexpectedly it was enough to scare anybody, for a thought.
1996 C. I. Macafee Conc. Ulster Dict. at Thought, thocht A short time.
2005 Chattanooga (Tennessee) Times Free Press (Nexis) 27 Sept. b 7 Johnny Johnson pulled up in truck No. 2 and had his breathing gear on to enter the garage. In just a thought the fire was out.
†IV. Corresponding to think v.2 III.
10. An opinion, judgement; a belief, supposition. In later use chiefly U.S. and in high thought. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > [noun] > a view, notion, opinion
thingOE
thoughtc1300
opinion1340
device1393
holdingc1449
opinationc1475
sense1539
apprehension1579
suppose1587
supposal1589
conception1603
notion1603
opining1611
tenet1631
respect1662
sentiment1675
perception1701
c1300 St. Thomas Becket (Laud) l. 869 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 131 (MED) Þe bischop bartholmev of Eccetre bi-gan to segge is þouȝt.
a1425 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Linc. Inn) l. 1090 Whan heo cam in present..Þeo iustice..saide his þouȝt.
a1475 Sidrak & Bokkus (Lansd.) (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Washington) (1965) l. 3677 (MED) It were aȝenst kinde in my þoght, A þing þat is of mater y-wroght, But if þat mater were bifore.
1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 iii. ii. 131 God forgiue them that so much haue swaide Your maiesties good thoughts away from me. View more context for this quotation
1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida iv. i. 55 Who in your thoughts, deserues faire Helen best. View more context for this quotation
1623 J. Webster Deuils Law-case ii. i You are false To the good thought I held of you.
1786 R. Burns Twa Dogs xxxiii, in Poems 21 The Ladies arm-in-arm..As great an' gracious a' as sisters; But hear their absent thoughts o' ither.
1831 W. Scott Count Robert iii, in Tales of my Landlord 4th Ser. II. 67 What, then, are thy thoughts of the Emperor?
1860 J. P. Kay-Shuttleworth Scarsdale II. 302 An' it's moi thowt ut he'd goo spark eawt in no toime.
1862 R.I. Schoolmaster (Rhode Island Commissioner Public Schools) 8 325/2 The parents of your pupils do not help you maintain a high thought of your profession.
1916 M. Jourdain tr. D. Diderot Early Philos. Wks. (1972) 81 I have in general no high thought of their humanity.
1927 C. E. Macartney ‘Of Them He chose Twelve’ xv. 158 Paul showed his high thought of the worth and dignity of man by a high regard for himself.

Phrases

P1. to hold (something or someone) in (one's) thought.
†a. To keep in one's memory. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 3420 All þatt ȝho sahh. & herrde..all ȝhot held inn hir þohht.
c1390 Cato's Distichs (Vernon) l. 66 in F. J. Furnivall Minor Poems Vernon MS (1901) ii. 558 (MED) Bokes lere þat þou hast herd And hold hem in þi þouht.
c1410 (c1350) Gamelyn (Harl. 7334) l. 474 Adames wordes he held in his þought.
b. To have as an object of consideration or reflection.
ΚΠ
1852 J. Martineau Ess. Philos. & Theol. (1869) II. 338 As to Mr. Mill's demand, that no general proposition shall be uttered, till the speaker holds in his thought all the instances to which it may be applied, we know of nothing more simply impossible or more entirely destructive of all scientific method whatsoever.
1873 M. C. Ames Memorial Alice & Phoebe Cary vi. 128 No less this book of poems holds in thought and utterance many of the elements of enduring existence.
1910 T. Hardy in Eng. Rev. Apr.–July 2 One can hold in thought that nightly here His phantom may draw down to the water's brim, And hers come up to meet it.
1997 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 12 Sept. 17 The true, spiritual nature of each person we meet or hold in thought is invulnerable to evil.
P2. In similes and other phrases with reference to speed or the passage of time.
a. as swift (also quick, fleet) as thought.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > swiftly [phrase] > very swiftly
as swift (also quick, fleet) as thought?c1225
like lightning1567
(as) quick as lightning1580
like wildfire1699
like stour1787
(as) quick as a wink1825
like smoke1832
quick as a streak1839
like sixty1848
(as) quick as thought1871
at a great lick1898
like a bat out of hell1921
like the clappers1948
like a bomb1954
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 75 Ase swifte as is nu monnes þocht as is þe sunne gleam.
c1450 (c1380) G. Chaucer House of Fame (Fairf. 16) (1878) l. 1924 And euer mo, as swyft as thought This queynt hous a bout went.
a1475 Sidrak & Bokkus (Lansd.) (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Washington) (1965) l. 2670 (MED) It is as swift as þoght.
1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost v. ii. 261 Fleeter then Arrowes, bullets wind thought. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) iv. iv. 554 Faster then Thought, or Time. View more context for this quotation
1708 N. Rowe Royal Convert v. i. 53 Fly swift as Thought, and set her free this Moment.
1778 R. Cumberland Battle of Hastings v. 87 Swift as thought I flew; And as a sturdy churl his pole-axe aim'd Full at the hero's crest, I sprung upon him And sheath'd my rapier in the caitiff's throat.
1885 C. F. Holder Marvels Animal Life 230 Quick as thought the skipper hurled his weapon.
1917 Mod. Lang. Jrnl. 1 137 Although the expression ‘quick as thought’ is an oft used simile for rapidity, thought is not so quick as nervous reaction.
1957 Times 28 Sept. 10/5 Swift as thought, sharp in all his reactions Segura was, as they say, ‘on the ball’ and devilishly determined from first to last.
1998 W. Barton in H. Marks Bk. Dope Stories (2001) ii. 137 I now, however, as quick as thought, completely revived.
2004 A. N. Athanassakis tr. Homeric Hymns (ed. 2) 18 Thence, fleet as thought, he leaves the earth for Olympos.
b. at (also in, †with) a thought: in an instant, immediately, at once.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > immediacy > [adverb]
soonc825
ratheeOE
rathelyeOE
rekeneOE
rekenlyOE
thereright971
anonOE
forth ona1000
coflyc1000
ferlyc1000
radlyOE
swiftlyc1000
unyoreOE
yareOE
at the forme (also first) wordOE
nowOE
shortlya1050
rightOE
here-rightlOE
right anonlOE
anonc1175
forthrightc1175
forthwithalc1175
skeetc1175
swithc1175
with and withc1175
anon-rightc1225
anon-rights?c1225
belivec1225
lightly?c1225
quickly?c1225
tidelyc1225
fastlyc1275
hastilyc1275
i-radlichec1275
as soon asc1290
aright1297
bedenea1300
in little wevea1300
withoute(n dwella1300
alrightc1300
as fast (as)c1300
at firstc1300
in placec1300
in the placec1300
mididonec1300
outrightc1300
prestc1300
streck13..
titec1300
without delayc1300
that stounds1303
rada1325
readya1325
apacec1325
albedenec1330
as (also also) titec1330
as blivec1330
as line rightc1330
as straight as linec1330
in anec1330
in presentc1330
newlyc1330
suddenlyc1330
titelyc1330
yernec1330
as soon1340
prestly1340
streckly1340
swithly?1370
evenlya1375
redelya1375
redlya1375
rifelya1375
yeplya1375
at one blastc1380
fresha1382
ripelyc1384
presentc1385
presently1385
without arrestc1385
readilyc1390
in the twinkling of a looka1393
derflya1400
forwhya1400
skeetlya1400
straighta1400
swifta1400
maintenantc1400
out of handc1400
wightc1400
at a startc1405
immediately1420
incontinent1425
there and then1428
onenec1429
forwithc1430
downright?a1439
agatec1440
at a tricec1440
right forth1440
withouten wonec1440
whipc1460
forthwith1461
undelayed1470
incessantly1472
at a momentc1475
right nowc1475
synec1475
incontinently1484
promptly1490
in the nonce?a1500
uncontinent1506
on (upon, in) the instant1509
in short1513
at a clap1519
by and by1526
straightway1526
at a twitch1528
at the first chop1528
maintenantly1528
on a tricea1529
with a tricec1530
at once1531
belively1532
straightwaysa1533
short days1533
undelayedly1534
fro hand1535
indelayedly1535
straight forth1536
betimesc1540
livelyc1540
upononc1540
suddenly1544
at one (or a) dash?1550
at (the) first dash?1550
instantly1552
forth of hand1564
upon the nines1568
on the nail1569
at (also in, with) a thoughtc1572
indilately1572
summarily1578
at one (a) chop1581
amain1587
straightwise1588
extempore1593
presto1598
upon the place1600
directly1604
instant1604
just now1606
with a siserary1607
promiscuously1609
at (in) one (an) instant1611
on (also upon) the momenta1616
at (formerly also on or upon) sight1617
hand to fist1634
fastisha1650
nextly1657
to rights1663
straightaway1663
slap1672
at first bolt1676
point-blank1679
in point1680
offhand1686
instanter1688
sonica1688
flush1701
like a thought1720
in a crack1725
momentary1725
bumbye1727
clacka1734
plumba1734
right away1734
momentarily1739
momentaneously1753
in a snap1768
right off1771
straight an end1778
abruptedly1784
in a whistle1784
slap-bang1785
bang?1795
right off the reel1798
in a whiff1800
in a flash1801
like a shot1809
momently1812
in a brace or couple of shakes1816
in a gird1825
(all) in a rush1829
in (also at, on) short (also quick) order1830
straightly1830
toot sweetc1830
in two twos1838
rectly1843
quick-stick1844
short metre1848
right1849
at the drop of a (occasionally the) hat1854
off the hooks1860
quicksticks1860
straight off1873
bang off1886
away1887
in quick sticks (also in a quick stick)1890
ek dum1895
tout de suite1895
bung1899
one time1899
prompt1910
yesterday1911
in two ups1934
presto changeo1946
now-now1966
presto change1987
c1572 W. Forrest Theophilus 342 in Anglia (1884) 7 89 Made invocation, And was present in manner, at a thought.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) iv. i. 164 Come with a thought; I thank thee Ariell: come. View more context for this quotation
a1625 J. Fletcher Bonduca i. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Ffff4v/1 The light shadows that in a thought scur ore the fields of Corn.
1664 T. Killigrew 2nd Pt. Cicilia & Clorinda i. iv, in Comedies & Trag. 272 A little half hours walk for my aged feet; but you that have youth and strength will in a thought arrive.
1798 C. B. Brown Wieland v. 13 I could not vanish with a thought. the door was open, but my murderer was interposed between that and me.
1846 H. Morford Rest of Don Juan iii. xlviii. 19/2 Specious pretence, adroitly carried out, And rightly judged by Juan at a thought.
1890 T. Heney In Middle Harbour 37 In a thought I unbuckled a stirrup.
1921 W. de la Mare Mem. Midget xxvii. 180 My body grew cold at a thought; the palms of my hands began to ache.
1946 F. P. Grove In Search of Myself vi. 226 At a glance I could survey the prairie country from Kansas to Saskatchewan or Alberta; and at a thought I could evaluate..the implications of pioneer life.
1996 O. P. Ralhan Encycl. Polit. Parties VIII. 525 You cannot altogether eliminate all religious or racial or national factors at a stroke, at a thought.
c. like a thought.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > immediacy > [adverb]
soonc825
ratheeOE
rathelyeOE
rekeneOE
rekenlyOE
thereright971
anonOE
forth ona1000
coflyc1000
ferlyc1000
radlyOE
swiftlyc1000
unyoreOE
yareOE
at the forme (also first) wordOE
nowOE
shortlya1050
rightOE
here-rightlOE
right anonlOE
anonc1175
forthrightc1175
forthwithalc1175
skeetc1175
swithc1175
with and withc1175
anon-rightc1225
anon-rights?c1225
belivec1225
lightly?c1225
quickly?c1225
tidelyc1225
fastlyc1275
hastilyc1275
i-radlichec1275
as soon asc1290
aright1297
bedenea1300
in little wevea1300
withoute(n dwella1300
alrightc1300
as fast (as)c1300
at firstc1300
in placec1300
in the placec1300
mididonec1300
outrightc1300
prestc1300
streck13..
titec1300
without delayc1300
that stounds1303
rada1325
readya1325
apacec1325
albedenec1330
as (also also) titec1330
as blivec1330
as line rightc1330
as straight as linec1330
in anec1330
in presentc1330
newlyc1330
suddenlyc1330
titelyc1330
yernec1330
as soon1340
prestly1340
streckly1340
swithly?1370
evenlya1375
redelya1375
redlya1375
rifelya1375
yeplya1375
at one blastc1380
fresha1382
ripelyc1384
presentc1385
presently1385
without arrestc1385
readilyc1390
in the twinkling of a looka1393
derflya1400
forwhya1400
skeetlya1400
straighta1400
swifta1400
maintenantc1400
out of handc1400
wightc1400
at a startc1405
immediately1420
incontinent1425
there and then1428
onenec1429
forwithc1430
downright?a1439
agatec1440
at a tricec1440
right forth1440
withouten wonec1440
whipc1460
forthwith1461
undelayed1470
incessantly1472
at a momentc1475
right nowc1475
synec1475
incontinently1484
promptly1490
in the nonce?a1500
uncontinent1506
on (upon, in) the instant1509
in short1513
at a clap1519
by and by1526
straightway1526
at a twitch1528
at the first chop1528
maintenantly1528
on a tricea1529
with a tricec1530
at once1531
belively1532
straightwaysa1533
short days1533
undelayedly1534
fro hand1535
indelayedly1535
straight forth1536
betimesc1540
livelyc1540
upononc1540
suddenly1544
at one (or a) dash?1550
at (the) first dash?1550
instantly1552
forth of hand1564
upon the nines1568
on the nail1569
at (also in, with) a thoughtc1572
indilately1572
summarily1578
at one (a) chop1581
amain1587
straightwise1588
extempore1593
presto1598
upon the place1600
directly1604
instant1604
just now1606
with a siserary1607
promiscuously1609
at (in) one (an) instant1611
on (also upon) the momenta1616
at (formerly also on or upon) sight1617
hand to fist1634
fastisha1650
nextly1657
to rights1663
straightaway1663
slap1672
at first bolt1676
point-blank1679
in point1680
offhand1686
instanter1688
sonica1688
flush1701
like a thought1720
in a crack1725
momentary1725
bumbye1727
clacka1734
plumba1734
right away1734
momentarily1739
momentaneously1753
in a snap1768
right off1771
straight an end1778
abruptedly1784
in a whistle1784
slap-bang1785
bang?1795
right off the reel1798
in a whiff1800
in a flash1801
like a shot1809
momently1812
in a brace or couple of shakes1816
in a gird1825
(all) in a rush1829
in (also at, on) short (also quick) order1830
straightly1830
toot sweetc1830
in two twos1838
rectly1843
quick-stick1844
short metre1848
right1849
at the drop of a (occasionally the) hat1854
off the hooks1860
quicksticks1860
straight off1873
bang off1886
away1887
in quick sticks (also in a quick stick)1890
ek dum1895
tout de suite1895
bung1899
one time1899
prompt1910
yesterday1911
in two ups1934
presto changeo1946
now-now1966
presto change1987
1720 S. Browne Hymns & Spiritual Songs i. 93 Just like a thought, a breath, a sigh,..Away our hasty minutes fly.
1763 Misc. Corr. in Prose & Verse July 1077/1 Like to the bubble in the brook,..Or like a thought, or like a dream.
1820 J. Keats Eve of St. Agnes in Lamia & Other Poems 96 Flown, like a thought, until the morrow-day.
1845 P. H. Gosse Ocean (1849) iv. 168 The whole herd are gone like a thought, leaving their unhappy comrade to his fate.
1921 J. Burroughs Under Maples vi. 94 Truly a fairy bird, appearing and vanishing like a thought.
2005 W. Roosa in P. Pongracz & W. Roosa Next Generation 16 Like a thought that slips away so quickly.
P3. In proverbs.
a. thought is free (also thoughts are free) [compare classical Latin liberae sunt enim nostra cogitationes, et quae volunt sic intuentur ‘for our thoughts are free, and contemplate whatever they wish’ (Cicero, Pro Milone 79)] : people are at liberty to think as they like.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > freedom or liberty > freedom of action or from restraint > without restraint [phrase] > one is free to do or think as one will
thought is freea1393
it's a free country1813
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. l. 4485 (MED) I have herd seid that thoght is fre.
a1400 in W. L. Braekman Fortune-telling by Casting of Dice (1981) 27 ‘Yhaht [v.r. thowt] is fre,’ so says ye buk.
1562 Bp. J. Pilkington Vision of Abdy in Aggeus & Abdias Prophetes sig. Ddiiv He that lokes at a woman too luste for her, hays committed adultery, therfore let vs not deceiue oure selfes sayinge: thought is free, or I maye thinke what I lust.
1580 J. Lyly Euphues & his Eng. (new ed.) f. 30 Thought is free my Lorde quoth she.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) i. iii. 66 Now sir, thought is free . View more context for this quotation
1659 S. Cradock Knowl. & Pract. v. 231 In the worlds wicked proverb, thoughts are free.
1731 E. Thomas in R. Gwinnett & E. Thomas Pylades & Corinna I. 212 If Thought is free, and Pity too, Then sure Compassion is her due, Who languishes to Death for you.
1778 C. Reeve Old Eng. Baron 108 'Tis no matter, answered he; thoughts are free.
1840 Times 26 May 6/1 It also encourages me to hope that, however we may differ in opinion—and where thought is free, there must be differences—still, we shall always recollect that we are one people.
1892 W. Wallace tr. G. W. F. Hegel Logic (ed. 2) 66 In these material, non-metaphysical surroundings, thought is free.
1941 Jrnl. Negro Hist. 26 289 It is freedom of thought itself and when thought is free what can bind us?
1987 Rev. Amer. Hist. 15 199 Thought was free, but no member of the community might rile neighbors or abuse authorities.
2006 Bangor (Maine) Daily News (Nexis) 14 Feb. a 1 ‘I don't think anybody should tell anybody else what to read,’ she said. ‘Thoughts are free.’
b. it is the thought that counts and variants: the value (to the recipient of a gift) lies in the goodwill or affection with which the gift is given (chiefly as a comment on an unwanted or poor gift, or one that is not given); also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > giving > liberal giving > liberally [phrase] > it is the thought that counts
it is the thought that counts1885
1885 Spirit Lake (Iowa) Beacon 1 Jan. 1/4 It is not the value of what is given that is to be considered. It is the friendly thought which counts.
1904 Lowell (Mass.) Sun 30 Apr. 8/2 It isn't the quantity; it is the thought that counts.
1961 C. McCullers Clock without Hands iv. 78 A house-warming present..not too modern or attractive, but it's the thought that counts.
1976 L. Thomas Dangerous Davies ix. 105 ‘He's eaten your Smarties.’.. ‘Thanks for bringing them anyway... It's the thought, really.’
1982 Preview Shopper Spring (London ed.) 7 It's the thought that matters. When someone you care for has a special occasion to celebrate you want to choose exactly the right gift.
2004 Time Out N.Y. 28 Oct. 26/2 Sure, as Bloomberg reasoned when he tried to nix the ban, enforceability is near impossible, but it's the thought that counts.
P4. to take thought.
a. To think about something, esp. carefully. With for or of: to pay attention to, be careful about. Also with interrogative clause (how, what, etc.).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > continued thinking, reflection, contemplation > meditate, reflect [verb (intransitive)]
howOE
study?c1225
bethinkc1300
muse1340
recorda1400
imaginec1400
to take thoughtc1450
contemplaire1474
medite1483
remord1535
contemplate?1538
ruminate1547
meditate1560
scance1606
excogitate1630
cogitate1633
reflect1772
c1450 Alphabet of Tales (1905) II. 350 (MED) He..saw it, & tuke hym so mekull þoght þerfor þat he lefte all his gude & tuke hym to pouertie.
1509 Payne Evyll Marr. 125 And wyll take thought, and often muse How he myght fynde [etc.].
1567 in J. H. Burton Reg. Privy Council Scotl. (1877) 1st Ser. I. 519 Na persoun..takkis thocht quhat unhappy deid he sall tak upoun hand.
1600 B. Jonson Every Man out of his Humor v. i. sig. Oii I take thought how to bestow my dog, he is no competent attendant for the Presence. View more context for this quotation
1611 Bible (King James) Matt. vi. 27 Which of you by taking thought, can adde one cubite vnto his stature? View more context for this quotation
1733 Capt. Downes All Vows Kept i. i. 5 A Father's Counsel, which few dying Men take thought of.
1828 N. Hawthorne Fanshawe viii. 108 I shall take thought for them, and enough will remain for you and me.
1854 Law Mag. May 108 The Chancellor..should direct his attention to the entire history of the subject..and take thought why the work has hitherto failed.
1862 T. Winthrop Canoe & Saddle vii. 144 For some moments he gazed on his treasure, taking thought of his future proud grandeur among the dwellers by Whulge.
1910 D. H. Lawrence Let. 26 Oct. (1962) I. 67 One can get good Swinburnian consonant music by taking thought, but never Shakespearean vowel-loveliness.
1973 E. Muhammad Fall of Amer. xxi. 92 Now to see the citizens of America rebelling against the American educational system is something that the wise of the wise should take thought of.
2001 Classical Q. New Ser. 51 387 Xenophon remarks that all those who benefit their cities and their friends take thought for their private affairs, for these flourish or fall along with the city.
†b. To trouble oneself, grieve, be anxious or distressed. Also with for or of. Obsolete.Now merged in Phrases 4a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of being upset or perturbed > worry > anxiety > be anxious [verb (intransitive)]
mournOE
careOE
howOE
carka1350
to take thoughta1470
carp1522
sussy1570
ho1787
moil1889
to stress out1983
stress1988
a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll.) 1048 Whan sir Launcelot was departed, the quene outewarde made no maner of sorow..but..inwardely..she toke grete thought.
1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. ccxxxiii. 324 His wyfe..toke moche thought for his departyng.
1526 Bible (Tyndale) Matt. vi. f. viij Therfore take no thought saynge: what shall we eate?
1627 Hist. Fryer Bacon sig. C4v Take no thought for winning this Towne; for by my Art you shall (ere many dayes be past) haue your desire.
1682 J. Banks Unhappy Favourite v. i. 59 Repose Your mind, and take no thought but to be happy; I'll send you Tidings of a lasting Life.
1712 M. Henry Daily Communion God in Wks. (1855) I. 242/1 Taking thought for the morrow is the great hinderance of our peace in the night.
1761 tr. C. Batteux Course Belles Lettres III. iii. ii. 12 Cato, when desired by Cæsar's ambassador, to take some thought of his own safety, replies with a noble firmness: The gods take care of Cato.
1851 J. Baillie Dramatic & Poet. Wks. So will I e'en believe, and fret no more. What good have I in living free from wedlock, If I for husband's honour thus take thought?
P5. In phrases indicating abstraction or absorption in reverie or contemplation.
a. deep in thought.
ΚΠ
a1652 R. Brome Queen & Concubine iv. iii. 82 in Five New Playes (1659) So deep in thought good Madam?
1737 J. Thurston Fall iii, in Poems Several Occasions (ed. 2) 126 But deep in thought, and with a careless air, Our artful Lover fill'd his easy chair.
a1856 J. G. Percival Fragment in Poet. Wks. (1859) I. 279 I have thus often sat, and deep in thought Outwatched the stars; have seen their fires grow dim, Till the young morning stood upon the hills.
1922 ‘R. Crompton’ Just—William v. 109 William stood, majestic in his glorious apparel, deep in thought.
1999 Canad. Geographic July 61/2 A person deep in thought is said to be ‘in the moon’ instead of ‘absent-minded.’
b. lost in thought.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > mental wandering > abstraction, absent-mindedness > [adjective]
in one's musesa1500
abstract1509
abstracteda1586
absent1631
thoughtful1656
vacant1680
lost in thought1681
withdrawn1713
dreamy1794
dun1797
preoccupied1801
absent-minded1824
pebble-beached1890
1681 J. Dryden Spanish Fryar i. i. 8 Nor can I think; or I am lost in thought.
1763 F. Brooke Hist. Lady Julia Mandeville I. 24 She was for some moments silent, and seemed lost in thought.
1806 J. Porter Thaddeus of Warsaw (ed. 4) III. x. 251 Miss Beaufort..was standing by one of the windows, evidently lost in thought.
1863 W. Collins No Name i. x. 44/1 He..sat at the table, drawing lines on the blotting-paper with his pen, lost in thought.
1955 L. P. Hartley Perfect Woman xxvii. 240 Jeremy stood lost in thought. ‘She hasn't been away very long,’ he said.
1997 T. Bowler River Boy (2001) 108 He seemed lost in thought and certainly in no way grateful to her for dragging herself up here in the early hours of the morning.
c. wrapped (also rapt) in thought.
ΚΠ
1704 J. Trapp Abra-Mule iv. ii. 55 My Soul..Ev'n on the Rack it's Firmness shall maintain; All wrapt in Thought, and negligent of Pain.
1730 G. Woodward Poems Several Occasions 94 Rapt in Thought I'd lay along, And listen to the sylvan Song.
1801 E. Hamilton Mem. Mod. Philosophers (ed. 3) II. xiv. 373 He was so rapt in thought, that it was a considerable time ere he perceived that two letters lay for him upon the table.
1858 I. D'Israeli Curiosities of Lit. (ed. 14) 312 Standing wrapped in thought, sometimes with his eyes fixed on the heavens in the moment of inspiration.
1897 B. Stoker Dracula xv. 205 I waited a considerable time for Van Helsing to begin, but he stood as if wrapped in thought.
1969 C. H. Shattuck Hamlet of Edwin Booth ii. vi. 142 Hamlet, rapt in thought, does not see it [sc. his father's ghost].
2005 Stamp Mag. Apr. 67/2 Puzzling over the invisible force that moved the needle he was wrapped in thought for hours on end.
d. absorbed (also engrossed) in thought.
ΚΠ
1754 C. Lennox tr. L. Ariosto in Shakespear Illustr. III. 253 He stood apart from theThrong, absorbed in Thought,and wholly insensible of the Tumult aroundhim.
1760 C. Johnstone Chrysal II. iii. 26 She went in to his Lordship, whom she found absorbed in thought about the vision.
1837 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 135/1 Marmaduke was so engrossed in thought that he heard her imperfectly.
1838 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby (1839) iii. 26/1 ‘Yes, mother, yes,’ said Nicholas, who had hitherto remained silent and absorbed in thought.
1932 F. T. Cooper tr. F. Donauer Swords against Carthage xxi. 218 Blandina remained absorbed in thought.
1991 Oxf. Art Jrnl. 14 i. 82/1 They show the head and bust of the subject..with the first appearing deeply absorbed in thought.
2004 H. Southworth Intersecting Realities 185 She asks her audience to imagine her as a fisherman engrossed in thought, a fishing rod in her hand.
P6. perish the thought: see perish v. Phrases 1a.
P7. In negative contexts: (not) to give (something or someone) a (also another) thought: (not, never, scarcely, etc.) to think at all or any more about, (not, never, scarcely, etc.) to keep in one's mind.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > ignoring, disregard > ignore, disregard [verb (transitive)] > not care about
value1591
matter1652
(not) to give (something or someone) a (also another) thought1762
not to want to know1948
1762 T. Leland Longsword II. v. ii. 106 Too intent on paying the mournful offices to my deceased parent, I could scarcely give a thought to Les Roches.
1788 School for Fathers I. 97 He might indeed have purchased a living,..but as that would be leaving all the future hopes of his family dependant on the casualty of his life, he could not give it a thought.
1816 J. Austen Emma II. xiv. 269 As to smaller-sized rooms than I had been used to, I really could not give it a thought.
1883 Harper's Mag. June 146/1 The cynics, who have never given a thought or lifted a hand to relieve suffering or to remedy wrong, sneer at superserviceable philanthropy.
1925 F. S. Fitzgerald Great Gatsby iii. 64 I wanted..to apologize for not having known him in the garden. ‘Don't mention it,’ he enjoined me eagerly. ‘Don't give it another thought, old sport.’
1953 H. Clevely Public Enemy xxvii. 214 ‘After your wife's death, didn't you miss this bag?’ ‘I didn't even give it a thought.’
1956 M. Dickens Angel in Corner viii. 116 There will be plenty of young men in America... You won't give this Joe creature another thought.
2003 A. Notaro Back after Break vi. 55 Luckily, he knew Chris Keating wouldn't give it another thought.., so he'd say nothing.
P8. thought for (also of) the day (or week, etc.): a pregnant or gnomic thought, esp. one published or broadcast, to be pondered in the course of the day.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > instructive thought
thought for (also of) the day (or week, etc.)a1859
a1859 J. W. Alexander Thoughts on Preaching (1863) 511 I have found much pleasure in writing down at night what I call the thought of the day; that is, some reflection derived from the day's observation, especially if it can be couched in a single sentence.
1859 A. C. Coxe Thoughts on Services p. vii They [sc. anthems] are frequently spoken of in this book, to supply the mind with a thought for the day.
1888 Newport (Rhode Island) Mercury 1 Dec. 1/7 The thought of the day and hour then is that we should perpetuate to those who come after us the great heritage of liberty which we have received.
1932 R. Lehmann Invit. Waltz i. ii. 6 ‘Remember what Mother said yesterday.’ ‘What?’ ‘She'd have to start calling you herself.’ Olivia gave a hoarse chuckle. ‘Thought for the day.’
1972 B.B.C. Handbk. 1973 82 Thought for The Day is broadcast as part of the morning Today sequence at 7.45 a.m.
1973 Theory into Pract. 12 214/1 Several classes have enjoyed a ‘Thought of the Day’ project. My principal gave a ‘thought of the day’ each morning over the public address system.
1976 Listener 2 Dec. 716/3 So there, for the programme-makers' suggestion box, is a thought for the week.
1978 R. Thomas Chinaman's Chance xv. 152 They pay a lot to live here and then they never get up in time to watch the sun rise... Just my thought for the day.
1999 Church Times 26 Feb. 6/3 He instituted a thought for the day on the ship's broadcast.

Compounds

C1.
a. General attributive.
(a) In nouns that are more or less ad hoc formations, as thought-coop, thought-defect, thought-laboratory, thought-manufactory, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > absence of thought > [noun] > defect in thinking
thought-defect1637
1637 T. Nabbes Microcosmus i. B iv b Dispute not..your owne thought-defects.
1860 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters V. 164 From the time of the Aristophanes thought-shop to the great German establishment, or thought-manufactory.
1870 N. Porter Human Intellect (ed. 4) ii. vi. 357 There are sense-parts and sense-wholes, representative-parts and representative-wholes, and thought-parts and thought-wholes.
1870 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows (1886) 309 His importation of the French theory of the couplet as a kind of thought-coop did nothing but mischief.
1910 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 21 310 Psychoanalysis..has its point of departure in the principle that the symptoms of these diseases are only the sensory images of particular thought-constellations, impregnated with feeling, which were distasteful to consciousness and therefore repressed, forgotten, but still live on in the unconscious.
1947 P. Grainger Let. 21 May in All-round Man (1994) 211 And Balfour said, on the same thought-theme: ‘The harmonium is such an intermittent instrument.’
1962 Galaxy Oct. 12/2 The telepathic monitors, both robotic and human, kept every thought-band under surveillance by random sampling.
2006 Guardian 21 Jan. (Review section) 10/5 Snazzily up to the minute on the latest findings from the eldritch thought-laboratories of philosophers.
(b)
thought accent n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > intonation, pitch, or stress > [noun] > accent > stress accent > specific
rhetorical accent1728
suppression1751
recession1855
thought accent1897
stress maximum1908
fall-rise1921
promotion1956
paroxytonization1973
1897 E. Anwyl Greek Gram. §40 The Thought-Accent is the stress or emphasis laid upon a word or syllable, in order to bring out the meaning of the sentence.
1931 Eng. Jrnl. 20 121 In which of the two meters does the thought accent correspond more closely to the metrical stress, and in which does the emotional state of the speaker find its more harmonious medium?
thought-action n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > process of thinking
i-thankc1000
thoughtOE
cogitation?c1225
thinkinga1382
imaginationa1393
pansing?a1505
beating1606
brainwork1606
brain labour1638
headwork1642
thought process1850
thought-action1860
thought-production1881
nutting1951
1860 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 400/2 ‘And what’, I said, ‘when hand-and-foot action shall have ceased? will you then allow some play for thought-action?’
1880 M. S. Phelps tr. R. Eucken Fund. Concepts Mod. Philos. Thought 20 In thought-action we have, not a system of uniformly persistent forces but a becoming, and a self-formation in the act of becomings.
1909 Encycl. Relig. & Ethics II. 85/2 Purely mental exercise consists in those ‘thought-actions’ (Denkhandlungen as Eucken calls them) which determine both our mental attitude and our conduct.
1935 Discovery Jan. 1/1 By means of electrical records made through the skull various states of the brain can be recognised; but the ‘brain waves’ thus recorded do not appear to be the result of thought-action.
2000 Callaloo 23 1274 The thought-action (the hyphen swings both ways here) of the conference was essayed before the theorists ‘knew it would work’.
thought barrier n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > bias, prejudice > narrow-mindedness > [noun] > cause of
narrower1753
thought barrier1888
1888 P. Mulford Religion of Dress 7 in Your Forces & how to use Them II. If you put on clothing used in every sort of work,..you place thereby a thought barrier betwixt you and them, which renders you less accessible to them.
1929 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 26 Mar. 14/2 The radio helps to break down the thought barrier between the rural sections and the big cities, like New York and Chicago.
2006 Guelph (Ont.) Mercury (Nexis) 16 Oct. a 1 ‘There really is no barrier except an artificial thought barrier,’ Winter said. ‘There's no reason I can't do anything a man can do.’
thought box n.
ΚΠ
1801 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1956) II. 696 Sometimes again the Ideas are considered as objects of the mind in thinking, sometimes they stand for the mind itself, and sometimes we are the thinkers, & the mind is only the Thought-Box.
1886 M. F. Tupper My Life as Author 145 The emptying out of my thought-box,..a most necessary relief.
1918 Times 2 Aug. 4/6 (advt.) The system takes a man's thought-box and proceeds to tell the owner how he can improve it.
2000 N. Boutilier On Eighth Day Adam slept Alone vi. 137 Like the poor hypothetical cat Trapped in someone's Thought box.
thought centre n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun]
witOE
thoughtOE
cogitation1557
thinkingness1672
thinkfulness1674
thoughtsomeness1674
cogitativity1722
cogitancy1759
maiden-thought1818
cogitativeness1823
thought centre1846
thought-consciousness1901
1846 E. A. Poe in U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Apr. 268/1 We think in cycles, and may, from the frequency or infrequency of our revolutions about the various thought-centres, form an accurate estimate of the advance of our thought toward maturity.
1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. I. iv. 115 But our higher thought-centres knew hardly anything about the matter. Few men can tell off-hand which sock, shoe, or trousers-leg they put on first.
1904 J. McCabe tr. E. Haeckel Wonders of Life i. 13 In 1894 Flechsig showed that there are four central sense-regions..in the gray cortex of the brain, and four thought-centres (‘association-centres’, or phroneta).
1940 Eng. Jrnl. 29 38 Much of our work is grouped about thought-centers, and I think we have now reached the point that we do not consider particularly whether we are teaching history, geography, science, or safety.
2003 Philadelphia May 114/2 A conference room—a ‘thought center’, in Rosenbluth parlance—at 2401 Walnut Street.
thought-construction n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > systematic structure
thought-construction1861
thought scheme1881
thought-world1904
mindscape1930
1861 F. O. Hyzer in A. B. Child Whatever is, is Right (ed. 2) 17 I, as far as this idea and its thought-constructions were concerned, was like some musicians, a far better conceiver than executer.
1882 B. P. Bowne Metaphysics iii. ii. 414 For psychologists of every school, sensations exist as raw material. They constitute, also, the excitations which arouse the soul to a higher thought-activity and thought-construction.
1920 S. Alexander Space, Time & Deity I. 161 In these thought constructions we are dealing all the time with ideas belonging to the empirical world.
1999 Philos. East & West 49 263 Consciousness and the duration of conscious experience are thought-constructions of the contiguities and simultaneities of the momentary flashings.
thought content n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > social psychology > psychology in relation to morality > [noun] > unit of thought in
thought content1862
1862 tr. R. Wurst in Amer. Jrnl. Educ. Dec. 471 Elementary exercises in thought and style, for the purpose of introducing the pupil to the ascertaining of the thought-contents of their written matter.
1882 A. Seth Devel. Kant to Hegel iv. 80 Hegel is explaining and justifying his abstraction of the thought-content of the Logic from the concrete domains of nature and spirit.
1916 L. Bloomfield in C. Hockett Bloomfield Anthol. (1970) 73 The type of sentence we have so far examined is..often used as the expression of a logical thought-content.
1994 H. Bloom Western Canon ii. ix. 204 The logos , or in Aristotelian terms the dianoia (thought content) of Goethe's work is the only vulnerable aspect, since the eccentric Goethean Science of Nature today seems an inadequate conceptualizing of his formidable daemonic apprehension of reality.
thought-entity n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > a thought, thoughts
thoughtOE
i-thankc1000
thinkingsa1225
pensee1474
considering1483
consideration1489
panse1568
reflect1594
reflection1648
thought-form1850
thought-product1853
thought-entity1868
1868 N. Porter Human Intellect iii. i. 380 The concept, the class, the argument, the inference, the reason, the system, are not individual entities existing permanently in the world of matter or spirit, but thought-entities, created by and existing for the intellect that thinks them into being.
1892 Monist 2 265 If a philosophy denies the existence of transcendentalistic thought-entities or of any such things in themselves, which serve as cement to combine the disjecta membra of their world conception, it is generally declared to lead straight on to nihilism.
1949 Mind 58 340 There is present, in addition to the imagery, an entity of another kind, a thought-entity.
2000 P. Millican in A. Hastings et al. Oxf. Compan. Christian Thought 500/1 More specifically logical objections include the argument's slide from the thought-properties of an entity to the existence of a thought-entity with those properties.
thought habit n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > customary way of thinking
thoughtway1666
thought habit1874
thought pattern1937
1874 Intellect. Repository & New Jerusalem Mag. Dec. 554 The state of man as regards his regeneration is thus determined and is manifested to himself by the quality of his thought-habits.
1886 Science 8 193/1 It ought to be possible to find an important useful significance in the thought-habits, the instincts, the will-mechanisms, the emotions of animals, and more especially of man.
1939 P. Christophersen Articles i. 18 The rise of new grammatical categories must be supposed to result from thought-habits that have become so common and urgent that they demand linguistic expression.
1993 A. Goodwin Dancing in Distraction Factory 167 A kind of thought habit, a predilection for specific forms, a certain type of belief, a ‘characteristic’ political structure or form of domination.
thought life n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > time for thinking
thinking time1668
thinking-while1668
thought life1855
head space1989
1855 Household Words 22 Sept. 181/1 I was living a thought-life, but so faint and so deep down, that they could not know it.
1884 J. Parker Apostolic Life III. 267 The writing..is a kind of body in which his thought-life lives for ever.
1942 Philosophy 17 253 This provides stillness for reflection and a thought-life.
2003 R. Lacey Street Bible 393 Those whose lives are run by their dark side have their thought life tuned into whatever it's got the cravings for at the time.
thought mode n.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > doctrine > [noun] > instance
truth1395
faithc1400
dogma1534
doctrinals1619
tendry1624
faith-mark1652
dogmatism1664
thought mode1939
1865 R. F. Burton Wit & Wisdom from W. Afr. p. xi The highest object of language-study is to obtain an insight into the characters and thought-modes of mankind.
1899 Amer. Anthropologist 1 660 The Australian thought-mode, with its numerical and social and fiducial expressions, assumes definite and harmonious shape.
1939 V. A. Demant Relig. Prospect vi. 145 Dialectical thought has..a kinship with traditional religious thought-modes.
2008 Macon (Georgia) Tel. (Nexis) 21 Jan. a 9 Stuck in their thought modes of the 1950s.
thought-object n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > matter of thought > [noun]
object?a1425
stuff1604
thought-object1838
thinkable1852
thoughtstuff1871
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > philosophy of language > meaning > [noun]
thought-object1838
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > mental action or process > [noun] > thought-force > object of thought
thought-object1838
1838 F. Haywood tr. I. Kant Critick Pure Reason 124 We can think no object, except by the categories, we can know no thought object [Ger. wir können keinen gedachten Gegenstand erkennen], except by intuitions, that correspond to those conceptions.
1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. I. ix. 283 It will show the relative intensities..of the several nerve-processes to which the various parts of the thought-object correspond.
1957 G. Ryle in M. Black Importance of Lang. (1962) 166 It is left to philosophy to be the science of this third domain which consists largely..of thought objects or Meanings.
2003 Theory & Society 32 136 The product of a socially emergent self, expressed in the language of a particular community, concerned with thought-objects constructed by that community.
thought-part n.
ΚΠ
1868 N. Porter Human Intellect ii. vi. 357 There are sense-parts and sense-wholes, representative-parts and representative-wholes, and thought-parts and thought-wholes.
1905 W. James in G. M. Fisher tr. H. Höffding Probl. Philosoph. p. xii We must suppose that the energy in Being that tends toward unity in the thought-part of Being, tends, by analogy, toward unity elsewhere also.
2003 W. A. Davis Meaning, Expression, & Thought iii. xiv. 369 (heading) Ideas as thought-parts.
thought-picture n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [noun]
huea1000
imagination1340
imagea1393
portraiturea1393
trowc1460
fume1531
imaginary1594
phantasm1594
trajection1594
representationa1602
idolum1619
object1651
tablature1661
fancy1663
representamen1677
phantom1686
presentment1817
fantasy1823
projection1836
visuality1841
thought-picture1844
imago1863
vestige1885
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > matter of thought > [noun] > mental model
landscape1612
thought-picture1844
mindscape1930
1844 Ladies' Compan. (N.Y.) Feb. 218/1 Nothing that approaches the realization of one's own thought-pictures in reading the sacred page.
1919 W. Deeping Second Youth xxix. 243 The arched vestibule..and the figure of the man standing there..reminded Laverach of the picture of the Roman sentinel..at his post in doomed Pompeii, and the..crashing of successive bombs made the thought-picture more vivid.
2004 C. Lee Aloft vii. 178 My first thought-picture is how the skirt must flip up to reveal the frilly white underbrief against her smooth mocha thighs.
thought process n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > process of thinking
i-thankc1000
thoughtOE
cogitation?c1225
thinkinga1382
imaginationa1393
pansing?a1505
beating1606
brainwork1606
brain labour1638
headwork1642
thought process1850
thought-action1860
thought-production1881
nutting1951
1850 S. Neil Art Reasoning in Brit. Controversialist Aug. 108 Were we always attentive to the thought-process in our own minds,..much indistinctness might be avoided.
1907 J. London Iron Heel i. 18 Each and every thought-process of the scientific reasoner is metaphysical.
2002 S. Brett Torso in Town (2003) xxxi. 247 Her inbred puritan instinct told her that alcohol could only befuddle the thought processes.
thought-product n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > a thought, thoughts
thoughtOE
i-thankc1000
thinkingsa1225
pensee1474
considering1483
consideration1489
panse1568
reflect1594
reflection1648
thought-form1850
thought-product1853
thought-entity1868
1853 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) May 287 Hegel reduces God to a thought-product.
1906 J. N. Keynes Stud. & Exerc. Formal Logic (ed. 4) 6 We may..say that psychology is concerned with thought-processes, logic with thought-products.
2000 Ethics 110 633 Arendt was herself determined not to allow thought products to blind us to historical, particular reality.
thought-production n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > process of thinking
i-thankc1000
thoughtOE
cogitation?c1225
thinkinga1382
imaginationa1393
pansing?a1505
beating1606
brainwork1606
brain labour1638
headwork1642
thought process1850
thought-action1860
thought-production1881
nutting1951
1881 J. Owen Evenings with Skeptics I. 152 None in which thought-production in and for itself has ever held such a prominent place.
1955 Classical Philol. 50 165/1 But there is more to this ode. It gives a good example of what can be done by combining the two techniques of thought production.
2004 L. Pearce Rhetorics Feminism ii. 109 These more recent insights into thought-production focus on the generation of concepts.
thought relation n.
ΚΠ
1847 Musical World 10 July 440/2 But completely as all the positions and thought-relations of this moral substance are manifested [etc.].
1885 Mind 10 107 A more definite attempt to express the nature of the thought-relation between the opposed elements is found in the Judgment.
1929 Educ. Res. Bull. 8 305/2 Words have been selected from available counts and arrangements made in terms of pupil need, word difficulty, and thought relation.
1997 J. M. Templeton Worldwide Laws Life (1998) 139 Mental ecology, then, means the branch of study that deals with the thought relation between human beings and their environment.
thought scheme n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > systematic structure
thought-construction1861
thought scheme1881
thought-world1904
mindscape1930
1881 J. Owen Evenings with Skeptics II. 463 The universe does not seem framed to satisfy the exigencies of those who must needs have a thought-scheme at once simple, homogeneous, and of universal application.
1948 Mind 57 259 Treating existential intuitions as the perceived convergencies of complementary thought-schemes—the sort of structures that Wittgenstein used to call ‘hypotheses’.
2000 N. H. Gregersen in A. Hastings et al. Oxf. Compan. Christian Thought 574/2 This eternalist solution was later adopted by Anselm and Thomas Aquinas, and also coined the thought schemes of Reformation orthodoxy.
thought-seed n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > a thought, thoughts > source of
thought-seed1845
1845 P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 2) 248 He would his brain had died ere it conceived One half the thought-seeds that took life in it.
1947 Eng. Jrnl. 36 321/1 What facts, what knowledge will be most valuable for them to have and to hold as the thought-seeds for man's next effort to create civilization?
2007 Washington Post (Nexis) 10 Apr. c1 His method seemed austere, but the thought-seeds LeWitt planted kept bursting into flower. He left a full garden of art.
thought structure n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > [noun] > system or theory
secta1387
philosophyc1387
scheme1690
thought1692
thought system1845
new thinking1853
thought structure1867
1867 W. L. Gage tr. C. Tischendorf Origin Four Gospels 94 If the reader was not able to come to an understanding with himself in this wondrous thought-structure [etc.].
1884 Daily Iowa Capital (Des Moines) 24 July 1/6 For the sake of making up an amusing theory I will assume that a person builds up a sort of thought structure all about them.
1965 Eng. Stud. 46 371 He envisages an extremely..complicated Coleridgean thought-structure which is realized or clothed in a number of images.
2000 M. H. Hacohen Karl Popper iv. 166 The clearer and simpler the thought structure, the better the prospects for memorization.
thoughtstuff n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > matter of thought > [noun]
object?a1425
stuff1604
thought-object1838
thinkable1852
thoughtstuff1871
1871 Jrnl. Mental Sci. 16 243 If you think of memory as two persons, one who keeps thought-stuff and the other who réchauffés it for the table of consciousness, then to reason that the cook is not constantly appearing at table seems irresistible.
1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xviii. 58 In some individuals the habitual ‘thought-stuff’, if one may so call it, is visual.
1915 New Statesman 23 Jan. 386/1 Hampered by so much ready-made reach-me-down thoughtstuff.
2003 R. Austin & L. Devin Artful Making v. 75 It's easier to change thoughtstuff than to re-form metal once it's bent the wrong way.
thought system n. [originally after German Gedankensystem (a1805 in the passage translated in quot. 1845)]
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > [noun] > system or theory
secta1387
philosophyc1387
scheme1690
thought1692
thought system1845
new thinking1853
thought structure1867
1845 J. Weiss tr. F. Schiller Philos. & Æsthetic Lett. 21 We seem to be satisfied with developing the passions in their extremes, aberrations and consequences, without regarding their intimate connection with the thought-system of the individual.
1882 B. P. Bowne Metaphysics (ed. 5) 1 Now the constant effort of thought is to reduce the order of impressions to the order of thought, or to rationalize its sense-experiences. It reaches this result by building its sensations into a thought-system.
1920 E. Dombrowski German Leaders Yesterday & To-day xv. 122 He registers presumptions, assertions, proofs, builds up his thought system mathematically.
1996 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 28 Nov. 7/2 Wat exaggerated the strength and permanence of Stalinism as a thought-system or ‘semantic universe’.
b. Objective.
(a) With participles, as thought-abhorring, thought-engendering, thought-inspiring, thought-reviving, thought-saving, thought-transcending, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > unintelligibility > [adjective]
uncouthc897
unnimlyc1225
incomprehensiblea1340
unsearchablec1384
unknowable?c1400
investigablea1425
uncomprehensiblea1425
unthinkablec1445
imperscrutablec1450
inscrutablec1450
inopinable?a1475
incomprenable1502
unspectable?1504
incogitablec1522
uncogitable1529
impenetrable1531
inimaginable1534
inexplicable1555
unsensible1555
unscrutable1562
unfashionable1563
unpenetrable1581
unexcogitable1592
ineffable1598
inexcogitable1599
indivinable1603
ininvestigable1604
incapable1605
searchless?1606
uncomprehensive1609
unconceivable1611
undivinable1611
unimaginable1611
unexplicable1615
unintelligible1616
unapprehensible?1617
unfathomable1617
imprehensible1622
ununderstandablea1631
indeprehensible1633
indiscernible1635
inscrute1639
inapprehensiblea1641
indiscoverable1640
unexaminable1641
impervestigable1643
fathomless1645
inconceivable1646
indeterminable1646
inexplorable1646
insearchable1647
incomprehended1652
comprehendlessa1654
incomprehensive1656
untraceable1661
uninvestigablea1677
unintelligent1683
incognoscible1691
thought-transcendinga1711
uncognizable1720
acataleptic1727
undescriptive1744
elusive1751
impalpable1781
inaccessible1796
unconjecturable1806
uncognoscible1821
unascertainable1827
unfixable1831
unguessable1832
unrealizable1832
unsurveyable1833
hard-shelled1835
unintellective1837
undeemed1845
graspless1849
unconjectured1850
incognizable1852
ungraspable1853
unreadable1853
super-cerebral1854
elusory1856
trans-conscious1865
intangible1880
uncatchable1892
unspelt1892
unplumbable1895
unknowledgeable1920
indiscutable1933
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [adjective]
thought-inspiring1729
thought-reviving1825
1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares f. 16v Thought-exceeding glorification.
1598 J. Dickenson Greene in Conceipt 14 An earthly heauen of imaginarie ioyes, a Paradise of thought-exceeding pleasures.
1603 W. Lisle Nothing for New-yeares Gift Sig. C3v Rein-searching God. Thought-sounding Iudge.
1606 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.) ii. iii. 13 Your thought-shaming acts.
a1711 T. Ken Hymnarium 101 in Wks. (1721) II. O Great I am, enthron'd on high, Of Thought-transcending Majesty.
1729 R. Savage Wanderer iii. 167 Thought-inspiring Woe.
a1800 W. Cowper Yardley-Oak in W. Hayley Life & Posthumous Writings Cowper (1804) III. 416 The thought-tracing quill.
1805 Tucker's Light of Nature Pursued (ed. 2) VII. xxvi. 157 I passed the time in thought-straining [1777 thought, straining] fervours of prayer, and devotion.
1825 D. L. Richardson Sonnets 24 A calm and thought-reviving sound.
1835 Woman I. 104 An idle set, a thought-abhorring crew.
1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick xxxv. 174 How could I—being left completely to myself at such a thought-engendering altitude,—how could I but lightly hold my obligations to observe all whale-ships' standing orders, ‘Keep your weather eye open, and sing out every time’.
1909 G. K. Chesterton Orthodoxy iii. 62 This..summary of the thought-destroying forces of our time would not be complete without some reference to pragmatism.
1927 A. Huxley Proper Stud. 298 There are plenty of people..who feel as much enthusiasm for thought-saving devices as for automatic dishwashers and sewing-machines.
1982 L. Ericson in O. Davies Omni Bk. of Paranormal & Mind i. v. 73 They postulated the existence of absurd, thought-carrying particles.
2007 Mountain Mail (Sororro, New Mexico) (Nexis) 13 Dec. I wonder what media her children will be using to badmouth her some day. There will probably be some sort of thought transmitting device that they'll all wear around behind their ears 24/7 so they can ridicule adults in real-time.
(b) With agent and verbal nouns.
thought-catcher n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > one who thinks
thinker1435
minder1584
thought-catcher1584
raisonneur1814
cogitator1834
thought-maker1841
noodler1955
maître à penser1959
1584 J. Lyly Alexander, Campaspe, & Diogenes v. iv. sig. F3 I am no thought catcher, but I gesse vnhappily.
1925 E. Shaftesbury Great Psychic 88 The elder man of this family was one of the keenest thought-catchers that ever lived.
2005 P. Stallard in P. H. Graham Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Children & Families (ed. 2) iii. viii. 129 The therapist may work more as a ‘thought catcher’, identifying important cognitions when they occur and bringing them to the attention of the child.
thought-conductor n. now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telegraphy > telegraph > [noun]
telly1796
telegraph1797
telelectrograph1857
thought-conductor1889
magneto-telegraph1890
set?1891
1853 ‘Introviser’ Phrenol., Psychol., & Pneumatol. vi. 25 Every organ forms a kind of junction, where innumerable thought-conductors meet, and become the powerful promoters of action.
1889 W. F. Butler Charles George Gordon (1899) vii. 188 This lightning thought-conductor [sc. the electric telegraph] had been used..to disseminate lies and foster gambling in stocks or horses.
1957 G. I. C. de Courcy Paganini I. 53 ‘No,’ he replied, ‘I don't like it and look upon it merely as a thought conductor.’
thought-maker n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > one who thinks
thinker1435
minder1584
thought-catcher1584
raisonneur1814
cogitator1834
thought-maker1841
noodler1955
maître à penser1959
1841 J. Maden Gen. Baptist Mag. Apr. 121 The bards of the Bible, and the thought-makers of more modern times, have often pushed the gates ajar and let us peep through.
1847 E. Chubbuck Alderbrook II. 143 (heading) The rain a thought-maker.
1968 Eng. Jrnl. 57 680/1 Given the opportunity, are we studentmakers?.. Thoughtmakers? Discussionmakers?
2007 Evening Standard (Nexis) 26 Nov. a 6 The energy of London is nowhere more reflected than in the shifting balance of power among its thought-makers, trendsetters and leaders.
thought-sprinkler n. rare.
ΚΠ
1857 O. W. Holmes Autocrat of Breakfast-table in Atlantic Monthly Dec. 175/2 What would be the state of the highways of life, if we did not drive our thought-sprinklers through them with the valves open, sometimes?
1997 Herald (Rock Hill, S. Carolina) (Nexis) 16 Oct. 1 c The club's ‘thought sprinklers’ motto, as well as its name, were inspired by Oliver Wendell Holmes' book ‘Over the Teacups’.
thought-taking n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of being upset or perturbed > worry > anxiety > [noun]
mourningeOE
businessOE
busyOE
carefulnessa1000
carec1000
howc1000
embeþonkc1200
thought?c1250
cark1330
curea1340
exercisec1386
solicitude?a1412
pensienessc1450
anxietya1475
fear1490
thought-taking1508
pensement1516
carp1548
caring1556
hoe1567
thoughtfulness1569
carking1583
caretaking1625
anxiousness1636
solicitousness1636
concern1692
solicitation1693
anxietude1709
twitchiness1834
uptightness1969
1508 J. Stow Ann. Eng. (1592) 811 Christopher Hawis mercer and alderman of London, had bin so long vexed by the said promoters, that it shortned his his life by thought taking.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus in Paraphr. New Test. I. Luke xii. f. cxvv What man is hable by his carefull thought taking, to make one whyte heare of his head blacke, or one blacke heare white?
1615 S. Hieron Certaine Vsefull Medit. Death in Wks. (1620) I. 661 Exercised with a world of cares and thought-takings.
1668 Bp. J. Wilkins Ess. Real Char. ii. viii. 201 Anxiety, Discontent, thought-taking, dump, trouble, anguish.
1854 W. M'Intyre Expos. Serm. on Mount iv. 129 Such an increase is a result to which the thought-taking..is never directed.
1877 Harper's Mag. Dec. 135/1 The latter..kept herself constantly supplied with pleasure, while to the former fell all the thought-taking and care.
1932 A. K. Tuell Victorian at Bay 57 Always she [sc. Christina Rosetti] has kept in the palest chants of her darkest hours..that freshness never to be captured by thought-taking.
1972 Times 29 July 16/3 Even supposing that the RC padre does it all by thought-taking and will-power.
c. Instrumental, as thought-bewildered, thought-fed, thought-laden, thought-pressed, thought-unsounded, thought-winged, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > mental wandering > [adjective]
bemazed?c1225
madc1300
maskedc1300
marreda1375
astoniedc1386
adasedc1450
astonished1513
moping1566
bewandered1574
dizzy1579
westy1598
night-wildered1652
disconcerted1686
muzzy1723
flustered1743
bewildered1760
flurried1775
muddled1790
thought-bewildered1796
bedazzled1805
muggy1824
mused1842
moony1847
beflustered1864
bemused1880
snarled1881
bedazed1882
bemuddled1883
disoriented1957
disorientated1959
wifty1973
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > [adjective] > of the appearance or face
louring13..
sada1375
frowningc1386
fluishc1460
Lentena1500
glumming1526
Friday-faced1583
becloudeda1586
gash1589
dark1593
mumping1594
hanging1607
fiddle-facedc1785
murky1830
unsunned1838
thought-ladena1847
unsunny1859
unhappy-looking1863
unhappy-faced1876
boot-faced1958
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [adjective] > fed by thought
thought-fed1874
1796 T. Townshend Poems 69 The musing thought-prest head.
1796 S. T. Coleridge in J. Cottle Early Recoll. (1837) I. 199 I wandered on so thought-bewildered, that it is no wonder I became way-bewildered.
1816 L. Hunt Story of Rimini iv. 88 His thought-working head.
1819 P. B. Shelley Lines Euganean Hills in Rosalind & Helen 78 The sun floats up the sky Like thought-winged Liberty.
1846 C. G. F. Gore Sketches Eng. Char. (1852) 127 Sparing and thought-worn, there is nothing in his gravity of brow to encourage indiscreet encroachment.
a1847 E. Cook Summer is Nigh in Poems (1860) 314 My thought-laden brow.
1874 ‘G. Eliot’ College Breakfast Party in Macmillan's Mag. July 171 The thrill..Of thought-fed passion.
1878 A. C. Swinburne In the Bay xxxix The thought-unsounded sea.
1892 J. A. Symonds Life Michelangelo II. xii. viii. 31 This terrible thought-burdened form.
1892 W. B. Yeats Countess Kathleen 132 The tall thought-woven sails that flap unfurled Above the tide of hours, rise on the air.
1988 R. Angell Season Ticket (1989) ii. 19 Consider the catcher. Bulky, thought-burdened, unclean, he retrieves his cap and mask from the ground..and moves slowly again to his workplace.
2006 Toronto Globe & Mail (Nexis) 13 Feb. (Globe Review) r4 Britten..set Duncan's heightened, thought-burdened text to mellifluous lines.
d. Locative, as thought-fixed, thought-set, thought-wrapped, etc.
ΚΠ
1651 J. Harington Hist. Polindor & Flostella i. 48 Both thought-rapt, mute.
1760 J. Beattie Triumph Melancholy in Orig. Poems & Transl. 38 The thought-fix'd portraiture, the breathing bust.
1764 J. Ogilvie Providence iii. 166 So fared the thought-wrapt swain.
a1795 S. Bishop Poet. Wks. (1796) I. 59 Her the thought-rapt Being espied.
1813 J. Hogg Queen's Wake iii. xiv. 237 Still his thought-set eye was raised To Ettrick mountains.
1822 T. Hood Two Peacocks of Bedfont xv, in London Mag. Oct. 306 As if thought-tinted by the stains Of gorgeous light through many-colour'd panes.
1850 Germ (1992) 155 I believe that the thought-wrapped philosopher, who..designs some valuable blessing for his lower and more animal brethren, only pursues the craving of his nature.
1935 P. D. Longley Oil Lamps Lifted 41 Silently we walked..Back to our quiet camp Thought-wrapped.
2000 H. Berger Fictions of Pose ii. ix. 203 Granted that in his parenthetical scenario of absorption the finger marks the place for the thought-wrapt sitter to return to.
C2.
thought balloon n. †(a) a person's thoughts, conceived of as a hot-air balloon (obsolete rare); (b) = thought bubble n. (b).
ΚΠ
1864 L. M. Millard Nepenthe ix. 66 He is so often perched up on the frozen heights of theological speculation, or soaring off in some transcendental balloon... There's no knowing on what wild ocean we'll land if follow him in his thought balloon over the sea of conjecture.
1950 E. Larsen Spotlight on Films i. 34 They showed the girl sitting in her room, and above her head a so-called ‘dream balloon’ or ‘thought balloon’.
2005 Washington Post 20 Oct. c12 (cartoon caption) ‘Sarge! How did you find me?’ ‘I read your thought balloon in the first panel.’
thought block n. (a) a subdivision of text expressing one thought or train of thought; (b) [compare block n. 19e] inability to proceed with thinking.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > schizophrenia > mental block in schizophrenic
thought block1912
1912 R. W. Neal Thought-building in Composition 29 The three closing sentences form a new division, or thought-block.
1919 A. W. Hoisholt tr. A. M. Wimmer Psychiatric-neurol. Exam. Methods ii. 40 Interruption of the train of thought by suddenly developing complexes, fallacious ideas, hallucinations—often in the form of ‘thought block’.
1931 Dunkirk (N.Y.) Evening Observer 11 Sept. 6/4 At any hint of stammering the group joins in and carries the stammerer past his thought block.
1965 J. Pollitt Depression & its Treatm. i. 5 Definite features of schizophrenic illness, e.g. thought block.
thought-body n. Parapsychology a supposed spiritual counterpart of a physical body.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > ghost or phantom > [noun] > potential ghost
thought-body1883
1883 R. H. Newton Right & Wrong Uses of Bible vi. 206 We watch the embryonic stages of this thought-body, which at length awaited only the breathing within it of an informing spirit.
1893 H. R. Haweis in Fortn. Rev. Jan. 121 Assume that there is something personal about us able to manifest and arrange matter, and thus assert itself after death... Suppose we call that something our thought-body... Consider then the evidence; first, for the thought-body as Double, and second, for the thought-body as Ghost.
1918 Mod. Lang. Rev. 13 350 The mystical phenomenon of bi-location, which often appears in modern occultism as the Thought-Body.
1999 C. Bamford tr. R. Steiner Way of Self-knowledge v. 38 (heading) The ‘I’-body or thought-body.
thought-bound adj. (a) limited by existing thoughts or assumptions, or by thinking; (b) transfixed in thought; incapacitated by having too many thoughts.
ΚΠ
1651 S. Sheppard Epigrams vi. 'Tis true, I do in darknesse goe, That I am thought-bound well I know.
1749 A. Hill Gideon (rev. ed.) 89 Echo's hard Groan threw sad Sensation round, And thought-bound Silence started, at the Sound!
1834 R. M. Milnes Memorials of Tour in Greece 148 I saw another day The phantom of that youth, sitting alone, Quiet, thought-bound, a stone upon a stone.
1876 L. S. Bevington Key Notes 23 'Tis well no art of ours can ever teach The wind and song-bird trammell'd, thought-bound speech.
1895 S. M. Hensley Woman's Love Lett. 1 I passed the waking things that stirred and gazed, Thought-bound, and heeded not.
1924 H. G. Barker in Cent. Mag. May 22/2 The king does nothing but think. He is thought-bound.
1929 J. H. Woodger Biol. Princ. 28 A thinker who is not prepared to criticize his demands and assumptions..is thought-bound.
1999 S. Harrison Being One (2002) 45 We pick up this very book, thinking it might help with our thought-bound world.
thought bubble n. (a) U.S. an isolated, unconnected, or unrelated thought or idea; (b) (in a cartoon or other illustration) a shape resembling a cloud or balloon connected to a character by a chain of increasingly smaller circles, and enclosing text that is intended to represent the character's thoughts; also figurative; cf. thinks balloon n. at think v.2 Compounds.
ΚΠ
1906 Independent (N.Y.) 19 Apr. 898/1 At all events he seeks safety in closing his shell as tightly as possible..and..emits occasional thought bubbles from his inner consciousness.
1917 Mrs. W. Woodrow Hornet's Nest vii. 92 Ah, these brilliant, iridescent thought-bubbles of a morphia-maniac.
1942 Wisconsin State Jrnl. 6 Mar. 12/4 ‘It was only a thought bubble,’ Hibbard told The State Journal, and no definite move in that direction has been made.
1944 Lock Haven (Pa.) Express 23 Dec. 3/2 (caption) The wording in the sailor's ‘thought bubble’ is: ‘Just for a sight of Lock Haven.’
1964 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 27 Feb. d26/4 [In a comic book] Ed ponders..for a moment in little thought bubbles that come out of his head.
1996 P. Mitchell Acquiring Conception of Mind iii. 46 [They] circumvented the problem of thoughts being invisible by..presenting them to children visually encapsulated within thought bubbles.
2003 J. R. Lennon Mailman i. iii. 154 You could see the thought bubbles forming over his head, filled with self-satisfied Gallic thoughts.
thought-consciousness n. (a) conscious awareness of the process of thinking; (b) the state of consciousness during the process of thinking; (c) a conscious mind capable of thinking.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun]
witOE
thoughtOE
cogitation1557
thinkingness1672
thinkfulness1674
thoughtsomeness1674
cogitativity1722
cogitancy1759
maiden-thought1818
cogitativeness1823
thought centre1846
thought-consciousness1901
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > [noun] > during thought
thought-consciousness1901
1769 S. Stennett Disc. Personal Relig. II. xvii. 432 The soul exists after such a manner as to be capable of exercising those powers which are essential to it, such as thought consciousness and reflection.
1860 G. H. Lewes Physiol. Common Life II. 77 Thought-consciousness..includes all those phenomena of thought and emotion with which the psychologist concerns himself.
1901 E. B. Titchener Exper. Psychol. I. i. 1 A thought-consciousness, our mind as it is when we are arguing something out.
2005 Kansas City (Missouri) Star (Nexis) 14 Nov. b4 Another [theory on the creation of the Earth]..claims that the universe was created by a thought consciousness which manifests in physical reality through a geometric blueprint called the Sacred Geometry.
thought-counter n. a verbal or symbolic representation of an idea, a thought-sign.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > matter of thought > [noun] > symbol of thought
thought-sign1852
thought-counter1865
1865 J. H. Stirling Secret of Hegel I. Pref. p. xxxiv Germany seems to possess at present, not only a language of its own, but, as it were, a system of Thought-counters of its own for which no other language can find equivalents.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VII. 423 The auditory and visual images of words which constitute our habitual thought-counters.
1929 Hispania 12 292 Their very similarity to English words makes it so easy to disregard them and use the accustomed English word suggested by them as thought counters that no drill is had in making them function independently.
2000 J. Crick in R. Speirs Brecht's Poetry of Polit. Exile 125 He assumes the role of Teacher of the People, operating with a limited number of thought-counters.
thought crime n. unorthodox thinking considered as a criminal offence, usually in a totalitarian system; an example of this; spec. (in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which popularized the term) the offence of failing in absolute loyalty to the ruling power. [Originally after Japanese shisō-hanzai (1928; < shisō thought ( < Middle Chinese; in this context short for kiken shisō , lit. ‘dangerous thought’, used to refer to left-wing ideology; compare quot. 1982 at sense 2a) + hanzai offence, crime < Middle Chinese) and its abbreviated form shisō-han thought crime, also ‘thought criminal’ (1930; compare -han offence, crime < Middle Chinese). Compare thought police n.]
ΘΚΠ
society > law > rule of law > lawlessness > specific offences > [noun] > unorthodox thinking
thought crime1934
1934 Japan Year Bk. 1934 226 Department of Justice..Special institution for the prevention of thought crime.
1935 H. Topping tr. T. Kagawa Medit. on Cross i. 15 This Jew [sc. Jesus] is a thought-criminal, but there is nothing to touch his thought-crime in Roman law.
c1941 Japan Year Bk. 1940–41 865 Against thought crime.
1949 ‘G. Orwell’ Nineteen Eighty-four i. 22 He had committed..the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it.
1954 Encounter May 28/1 [The Revolution] first created the ‘People's Democracy’ of the Terror and of compulsory unanimity, of thought-crimes, and of denunciation as the supreme duty of the citizen.
1976 R. H. Mitchell Thought Control Prewar Japan iv. 120 Enforcing laws was perplexing, and was made more difficult by the vague terminology of the peace law, the unclear nature of a thought crime, and the general trend toward more laws.
2007 Independent 10 Dec. 31/3 A 23-year-old British Muslim saleswoman..was convicted last month..after downloading some jihadi material... Hers were thought crimes, which should not lead to prosecution in any democracy worth the name.
thought criminal n. a person who commits (a) thought crime. [Originally after Japanese shisō-hannin (1933 or earlier; < shisō thought (see thought crime n.) + hannin criminal < Middle Chinese) and its abbreviated form shisō-han (see thought crime n.). Compare slightly earlier thought crime n., thought police n.]
ΚΠ
1935 H. Topping tr. T. Kagawa Medit. on Cross i. 15 This Jew [sc. Jesus] is a thought-criminal, but there is nothing to touch his thought-crime in Roman law.
1949 ‘G. Orwell’ Nineteen Eighty-four i. 57 Syme..was fully capable of denouncing him as a thought-criminal.
1991 J. Chang Wild Swans (1993) iii. 88 Word was out that he had been branded a ‘thought criminal’ [by the occupying Japanese]—an offense which was punishable by imprisonment, and possibly death.
thought disorder n. Medicine and Psychology a mental disorder, typically a psychosis, in which there is illogical, confused, or bizarre thinking, often accompanied by incoherent and irrelevant speech.
ΚΠ
1931 Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry 88 432 Freud..sees in abstract thinking in the normal a strong resemblance to the thought disorder of schizophrenics.
1968 Brit. Jrnl. Psychiatry 114 1079/1 The grosser aspects of schizophrenic thought disorder—blocking, neologisms, markedly disorganized conceptual thinking—remitted.
1998 M. A. Zona et al. in J. R. Meloy Psychol. of Stalking iv. 70 The three primary Axis I disorders affecting many stalkers are thought disorders, mood disorders, and substance abuse disorders.
thought-executing adj. (a) acting with the swiftness of thought (usually with allusion to quot. 1608); (b) carrying out a person's thought or intention.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > [adjective] > killing swiftly
thought-executing1608
the world > action or operation > carrying out > [adjective] > that executes or performs > the thought of someone
thought-executing1820
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear ix. 4 You sulpherous and Thought executing fires. View more context for this quotation
1789 W. Gilbank Day of Pentecost xi. 225 When with thought-executing speed the sound Of—Abraham, Abraham—from an Angel's voice Arrested in mid air th' impending stroke.
1820 P. B. Shelley Prometheus Unbound i. i. 38 Trampled down By his thought-executing ministers.
1842 R. H. Barham Netley Abbey in Ingoldsby Legends 2nd Ser. 23 Long, long in Thought the patient Earth he curs'd, That bore the Fabric's then unbroken Spires; Long wish'd the Pow'r to bid Volcanos burst, Or call from Heav'n thought-executing fires.
1858 Whitewater (Wisconsin) Reg. 6 Nov. 1/7 The old presses are gone; and here in their stead we have those great thought-executing monsters with lungs of iron and breath of steam.
1951 Times 26 Sept. 7/5 There is an adjacent area, running from the Fens to Northamptonshire, that can be relied on to be comparatively free of thought-executing fires.
2004 Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 4 Sept. 10 It is rather depressing to see the same thought-executing tradition being continued in the city council, with the Britannia Football Stadium being built beside a main railway line without a platform for supporters.
thought experiment n. an experiment carried out only in one's imagination; a mental assessment of the implications of a hypothesis; = Gedankenexperiment n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > testing > [noun] > of imagined experience
thought experiment1854
the world > matter > physics > [noun] > specific concepts or principles of > imaginary experiment
thought experiment1854
Gedankenexperiment1958
1854 A. Edersheim tr. H. M. Chalybäus Hist. Devel. Speculative Philos. v. 133 That this is really true, will be found by making the most simple thought-experiment [Ger. Gedankenexperiment].
1893 Philos. Rev. 2 598 The writer's ‘thought-experiment’..is, certainly, more interesting than many others of the classical attempts at systematization.
1982 New Scientist 14 Jan. 75/2 Bekenstein considered a ‘thought experiment’ in which a box full of heat radiation was slowly lowered on a rope towards the surface (the horizon) of a black hole.
2005 Daily Tel. 17 Oct. 19/1 Let us try a thought experiment. Forget the war, disregard the continuing occupation and instead ask..what kind of constitution Iraq ought to have.
thought field n. (a) thought, or the mind, imagined as a field in which things can grow, be harvested, etc. (now rare); (b) an energy field supposedly generated by a person's thoughts or consciousness; with later use cf. thought field therapy n.
ΚΠ
1868 Ladies' Repository Feb. 92 The thought fields are open to all.
1906 F. B. Wilson Through Silence to Realization 109 Why one nation differs from another is largely because in the thought field of that nation the seeds that are sown differ from the seeds that are sown in the thought-field of another nation.
1944 New Eng. Q. 17 374 An emergent dimension of thought fields, a growing pattern of all the fields of consciousness of all human beings.
1996 Family Therapy Networker July–Aug. 25 Callahan postulated a connection between what he calls ‘perturbations’ in the ‘thought field’ any negative emotional condition or disturbance..and disruptions in the body's energy system.
2007 Times (Nexis) 6 Jan. 8 TFT..is based on the idea that psychological problems such as anxiety are the product of disturbances in what practitioners call ‘thought fields’.
thought field therapy n. (also with capital initials) a form of alternative therapy based on the belief that imbalances in a person's thought field (thought field n. (b)) are responsible for psychological problems, and that these can be treated by tapping on certain parts of the body with the fingers.A proprietary name in the United States.
ΚΠ
1995 Traumatol. (Electronic ed.) 1 In Thought Field Therapy the patients are also asked to identify memories or thoughts which are disturbing,..simultaneously performing a number of operations in sequence partially consisting of finger and hand tapping.
2003 Daily Tel. 21 Feb. 24/6 Thought field therapy is a controversial, alternative form of psychotherapy. It involves tapping parts of the body in certain sequences, in an attempt to correct the ‘energy field imbalances’ that some therapists believe are the root cause of psychological problems.
thought leader n. an influential or innovative thinker; a person with intellectual influence over a society or group.
ΚΠ
1887 L. Abbott & S. B. Halliday Henry Ward Beecher i. ii. 56 Mr. Beecher retains his position as the most eminent preacher and one of the great thought-leaders in America.
1908 Biblical World 32 51 Thought leaders declare that the success of any movement hinges more upon the personality of its supporters than upon its own intrinsic excellence.
2002 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 6 Jan. iv. 15/3 Authoritarian societies where thought-leaders—imams, academics, politicians or columnists—are either owned by the regime or jailed by the regime.
thought leadership n. intellectual influence; innovative or pioneering thinking.
ΚΠ
1898 C. A. Berry New Puritanism iii. 123 Foremost in thought-leadership and influence, because speaking to men as preacher..and dreamed dreams, and gripped problems, and found out new ways to emancipation and progress.
1922 A. D. Sheffield Joining in Public Discuss. Introd. p. vii Why not aim, then, to develop the discussion-group simply as a ‘will-organization’ in which the best thought-leadership shall prevail.
2003 Chicago Tribune 3 Feb. iv. 7/1 (advt.) Our research-based faculty will provide you and your executive peers with the best thought leadership available, across all disciplines.
thought-line n. (a) a train of thought, a line of intellectual development; (b) a facial wrinkle supposedly caused by concentrated thinking.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > skin > textures or states of skin > [noun] > wrinkle
rimpleeOE
rivellingOE
rivelc1325
crow's footc1374
frounce1390
wrinklea1400
frumplec1440
freckle1519
line1538
lirkc1540
shrivel1547
plait1574
furrow1589
trench1594
crowfoot1614
seam1765
thought-line1858
laughter line1867
laugh line1913
smile-line1921
worry lines1972
1858 M. F. Tupper Rides & Reveries Late Mr. Aesop Smith 84 Heretofore I have acknowledged my obligations to our rivulet in the thought line.
1867 Old Guard June 463/2 There are thought-lines in my forehead, and laughter-lines about my mouth.
1909 J. Wells Stewart of Lovedale xxxiv. 371 His strenuous life had deepened the thought-lines on his strong face.
1956 Harvard Theol. Rev. 49 159 Sometimes between the 4th and 7th centuries, a recension of the N[ew] T[estament], or at least of the Pauline and Catholic epistles, into thought-lines was made.
2005 Evening Standard (Nexis) 21 Mar. 71 Hassidic Jews, whose fundamentalist outlook keeps their vocabulary and verbal imagery within very narrow thoughtlines.
thought model n. a system of related ideas or images.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of ideation > idea, notion, or concept > [noun] > system of
philosophyc1387
zeitgeist1848
thought model1891
1891 M. B. Eddy Sci. & Health (rev. ed.) iv. 155 The divine nature was expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God, and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow.
1936 L. Wirth & E. A. Shils tr. K. Mannheim Ideol. & Utopia v. 247 The next factor which may serve to characterize the perspective of thought is the so-called thought-model; i.e. the model that is implicitly in the mind of a person when he proceeds to reflect about an object.
2003 Educ. Stud. Math. 54 18 At the end of the trajectory, when the problems become more complex, it can also be used as a thought model for getting a grip on problem situations.
thought pattern n. a set of assumptions and concepts underlying thought; a habitual way of thinking.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > customary way of thinking
thoughtway1666
thought habit1874
thought pattern1937
1874 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) Oct. 644 The world is cast in the moulds of intelligence; it is a thought-pattern in which the web of the world is woven.
1937 A. Huxley Ends & Means iii. 23 Thought-patterns, feeling-patterns and action-patterns..have seemed in their time inevitable and natural.
1962 Notes & Queries Jan. 33/1 This strenuous attempt to convey the archaic thought-patterns of the New Testament into ‘the natural vocabulary, constructions, and rhythms of contemporary speech’.
2001 Elle June 109/1 Ten ‘schemas’, or self-defeating emotional and thought patterns that are usually set down early in life.
thought police n. (in a totalitarian state) a police force established to suppress freedom of thought; spec. (in pre-war Japan) the Special Higher Police (Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu or Tokkō), which was set up to combat left-wing ideology; (also in extended use) any group intent on stifling thought (in recent use often in the context of political correctness). [Originally after Japanese shisō-keisatsu (1930) < shisō thought (see thought crime n.) + keisatsu police. Compare thought crime n.]
ΘΚΠ
society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > political police > [noun]
political police1833
security police1915
G-man1917
thought police1934
1934 U. Close Challenge: behind Face of Japan xxviii. 349 An entire picnic party of intellectuals was taken up on the beach by dangerous-thoughts-police.]
1934 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 7 Oct. (Suppl.) 3/1 The change is to be credited not to the ‘thought police’, but to the approaching emergency.
1938 W. Price Children of Rising Sun 46 Naturally the ‘thought police’ claim credit for the suppression of communism.
1945 Sun (Baltimore) 6 Oct. 4/1 It is an order imposing freedom of speech, thought, religion and assembly on the Japanese people, and requiring the immediate liberation of those imprisoned for political offenses by the so-called ‘thought police’.
1949 ‘G. Orwell’ Nineteen Eighty-four i. 49 He had denounced his uncle to the Thought Police after overhearing a conversation which appeared to him to have criminal tendencies.
1969 Guardian 5 Feb. 3/1 The Kremlin's thought-police are moving in slowly, circumspectly, on the Soviet scientific community.
2005 Independent 7 Nov. 16/3 His latest book..was to be printed in China. However, much production was moved offshore after complaints from the local thought police.
thought-policing n. the suppression of freedom of thought.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > political police > [noun] > activity of
thought-policing1945
1945 Public Admin. Rev. 5 374/2 Other remedies to insure neutrality already exist without instituting a system of thought-policing.
1968 Listener 26 Sept. 412/3 To submit to censorship..is to submit to thought-policing, censorship being the prevention of certain thoughts and images from entering your mind.
2001 O. L. Graham in R. Daniels & O. L. Graham Debating Amer. Immigration, 1882–Present 165 Multiculturalism was increasingly identified with the arrogant thought policing of ‘political correctness’.
thought-provoking adj. prompting serious thought.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > continued thinking, reflection, contemplation > [adjective] > of thought: profound
deepc1000
profound?c1422
thought-provoking1791
1791 ‘Irishman’ Answer Burke's Refl. Revol. France 6 The terms of ‘cashiering’ and ‘misconduct’ may be thought provoking, but the term to be substituted for misconduct, should so far agree with it as to express error, as well as crime.
1862 H. E. Scudder Life & Lett. D. C. Scudder i. 7 A more serious and thought-provoking occasion was the eventful day when we were graduated from the Maternal Association.
1916 J. Dewey Ess. Exper. Logic ii. 84 It..endeavours to define what in the various occasions renders them thought-provoking.
1983 I. Murdoch Philosopher's Pupil 323 This was the most thought-provoking observation John Robert had ever elicited from her.
2005 R. Marich Marketing to Moviegoers ix. 218 If the films are engaging, witty, thought-provoking, and win awards, that's simply icing on the cake.
thought reform n. a process of individual political indoctrination used in communist China; (also in extended use) changing the way a person thinks. [Apparently originally after Japanese shisō-kaikaku ( < shisō thought (see thought crime n.) + kaikaku reform ( < Middle Chinese)). With reference to China after Chinese sīxiǎng gǎizào (Mao Zedong 1951; < sīxiǎng thought, ideology + gǎizào to reform, transform). Compare earlier thought control n.]
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > political philosophy > [noun] > political indoctrination
thought reform1944
1944 W. Lamott Nippon x. 152 Grade schoolteachers..became the nuclei of a ‘thought reform system’ radiating from the schools.
1951 Lowell (Mass.) Sun 24 Oct. 15/2 Despite this triumph, Mao said, the nation must look forward to further austerity, and further ‘thought reform’ among the intelligentsia.
1964 J. M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. x. 134 Great interest has been aroused by Chinese thought reform, because it has been used on a very wide scale with considerable success and because the methods used are novel.
1981 J. Bancroft in S. Bloch & P. Chodoff Psychiatric Ethics ix. 174 ‘Thought reform’ techniques and aversion therapy.
1994 W. Shaw Spying in Guru Land (1995) v. 135 The few who are left by this stage in the course, are simply those who want to believe. I witness nothing that could be called thought reform, or brainwashing.
thought-saver n. (a) a person who saves himself or herself the trouble of thinking; (b) something used to save a person thinking-time or the trouble of thinking; spec. a trite expression, a cliché.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > phrase > [noun] > cliché
glittering generality1849
cliché1881
thought-saver1931
1844 N. P. Willis in New Mirror 27 Jan. 270/2 There will be, doubtless, the class of thought-savers.
1892 Med. Advance 28 484 What a thought saver! What economy of cerebral substance!
1911 K. Cox Classic Point of View v. 185 The actual result..has been merely to install blue instead of brown, as a thought-saver and time-saver.
1931 L. Steffens Autobiogr. iii. i. 632 They were thoughtless conservatives..whose thought-saver was: ‘My father was a Republican, and what was good enough for him is good enough for me.’
1963 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 May 342/3 Those old thought-savers ‘the imagination of England’ and ‘the American mind’.
1993 D. N. McCloskey in M. A. Ferber & J. A. Nelson Beyond Econ. Man iv. 89 Men tend to think it satisfactory to find one loose end and pull hard. The young Karl Popper advocated just such a procedure, a thought-saver beloved ever since by young men.
1996 Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.) 18 Oct. c 1/1 You'll rarely find a Realtor, or any successful businessman, who doesn't have at least one pen in his possession at all times. It's the deal maker. It's the thought saver.
thought shop n. a place where ideas are discussed or developed; a think-tank. [In quot. 1851 after ancient Greek ϕροντιστήριον phrontisterion n. Compare thinking-shop n. at thinking n. Compounds 2.]
ΚΠ
1851 tr. Aristophanes Clouds in Jrnl. Sacred Lit. Apr. 301 I myself here am come to this thought-shop as a disciple.
1901 A. T. Hadley Educ. Amer. Citizen (1969) 173 The laboratory should be a thought-shop rather than a workshop.
1964 R. S. Brumbaugh Philosophers Greece Notes 242 Aristophanes' satiric appraisal of the ‘thought shop’ in The Clouds reflects conservative opinion.
1970 Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, Illinois) 24 June 4/3 They find it harder to get at presidential adviser Henry Kissinger, who heads a ‘thought shop’ of 70 in the White House and launches much of the nation's foreign policy.
1982 European Stars & Stripes (Darmstadt, Germany) 26 Nov. 15/2 He went off in the woods of Westchester County, N.Y., in 1961 to open his own little thought shop, the Hudson Institute, at Croton-on-Hudson.
thought-sick adj. sick with anxiety or through thinking; now only with reference or allusion to quot. 1604.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > continued thinking, reflection, contemplation > [adjective] > adversely affected by
thought-sicka1586
over-thoughtful1687
overthoughted1877
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) ii. xxiii. sig. Dd3v (heading) Zelmane thought-sicke, vnmaskes her selfe.
1598 J. Dickenson Greene in Conceipt 9 Thought-sicke louers haue onely reason their soueraigne refuge.
1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iii. iv. 50 The very soule..Is thought sick at the act. View more context for this quotation
1641 J. Jackson True Evangelical Temper iii. 187 For what is poore, and silly man alone, but a very scrich-owle, and satyre, a melancholick and hypochondriack creature, growing pensive and thought-sick?
1794 R. Lee Flowers from Sharon 124 My Courage fell, my Thought-sick Mind Indulged a melancholy Mood.
1829 C. Lamb Poet. Wks. (1836) 72 Thought-sick and tired Of controversy.
1950 College Eng. 11 259/2 The soliloquies and the other cruxes in the play that have led critics..to see a sentimental, thought-sick Hamlet in an Elizabethan tragedy.
thought-sign n. a verbal or symbolic representation of an idea.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > matter of thought > [noun] > symbol of thought
thought-sign1852
thought-counter1865
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical proposition > term of a proposition > [noun] > copula
band1588
thought-sign1852
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > a part of speech > verb > [noun] > copula
couple1628
copula1649
copulative1751
thought-sign1852
appredicatea1856
link-verb1892
1852 S. Neil in Brit. Controversialist 3 125 The thought-sign is, also possesses its own specific signification.
a1914 C. S. Peirce Philos. Writ. (1955) xvi. 234 The thought-sign stands for its object in the respect which is thought; that is to say, this respect is the immediate object of consciousness in the thought, or, in other words, it is the thought itself, or at least what the thought is thought to be in the subsequent thought to which it is a sign.
1946 Philos. Rev. 55 639 Is it the case that every thought-sign (sign of the thought species) is an interpretant as well as a sign which is interpreted?
1979 H. Putnam in R. Haller & W. Grassl Sprache, Logik & Philos. 101 Self-Identifying Objects—objects that intrinsically correspond to one word or thought-sign rather than another.
1991 Jrnl. Amer. Acad. Relig. 59 605 Hoopes traces the history of epistemology and psychology, the self sign and the thought sign in New England.
thoughtsman n. [after draughtsman n., etc.] now rare a (serious) thinker.
ΚΠ
1842 E. Miall Non-conformist Sketch-bk. 255 One whom we shall venture to designate a thoughtsman for the rest..whose..business it shall be..to make himself..acquainted with truth..for the common benefit.
1854 Brit. Controversialist 5 245 The foregoing brief and rapid survey of the lives and labours of the world's earliest philosophic thoughtsmen.
1875 T. Skinner Homœopathy 10 The whole system seemed to me..so preposterous..as that no ordinary thoughtsman could be blamed if he refused to give it even a hearing.
1966 J. Allen tr. R. Mengin No Laurels for de Gaulle (1971) 182 This friend always seemed to be able to enlighten me on the General's deepest thoughts, so I dubbed him the Porte-pensée. (I know that this comes out clumsily in English as ‘Thoughtsman’, but the meaning seems clear enough.)
thought-stream n. the continuous succession of a person's thoughts, spec. as represented in a narrative technique in fiction (cf. stream of consciousness n. 2).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > stream of consciousness > [noun]
thought-stream1839
stream of consciousness1855
stream of thought1890
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > [noun] > narration or story-telling > specific method of
framing1909
interior monologue1922
skaz1926
thought-stream1926
stream of consciousness1939
polyphony1954
dialogism1957
1839 F. Worsley Gazella iv. 132 Shall injured Clare then be forgot? Oh! rending conflict!—a shunned path Yawns dark his brain's thought-stream.
1850 H. F. Gould New Poems 76 'T is one thing, to set the light pen up and going; Another, to get the bright thought-stream to flowing.
1926 W. Lewis Art of being Ruled xii. vi. 400 Repetition is also in the nature of a photograph of the unorganized word-dreaming of the mind when not concentrated for some logical functional purpose. Mr. Joyce employed this method with success..in Ulysses. The thought-stream or word-stream of his hero's mind was supposed to be photographed.
1948 E. Bowen et al. Why do I Write? 23 But, of course, your monologue isn't simply a thought-stream.
2003 N. Rush Mortals xi. 115 He drank some, then lay back, closing his eyes, trying to drive the world whore , which was unfair, out of his thought-stream.
† thought-swift-flying adj. Obsolete rare that flies as swift as thought.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > [adjective]
swiftc888
swifta1050
currentc1300
quickc1300
hastivea1325
hastyc1330
ingnel1340
swiftyc1380
speedfula1387
fasta1400
swippingc1420
speedy1487
fleet1528
tite?a1540
scudding1545
flighty1552
suddenly1556
flight1581
feathered1587
Pegasean1590
wing-footed1591
swift-winged?1592
thought-swift-flying1595
wind-winged?1596
swallow-winged1597
Pegasarian1607
skelping1607
rapid1608
night-swifta1616
celerious1632
clipping1635
perniciousa1656
volatile1655
quick-foot1658
meteorous1667
windy1697
high-flying1710
fleet-footed1726
aliped1727
wickc1760
velocious1775
flight-performing1785
fast-going1800
fast-moving1802
meteor1803
wight-wapping1830
fleety1841
speeding1847
swiftening1848
two-forty1855
fire-swift1865
pennate1870
spinning1882
percursory1884
zippy1889
meteoric1895
pacy1906
presto1952
1595 G. Markham Most Honorable Trag. Sir R. Grinuile xiv In that same myd-daies hower came sayling in A thought-swift-flying pynnase.
thought-tight adj. [after airtight adj.] keeping particular kinds of thought separate; excluding some thoughts or modes of thought.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [adjective] > neatly divided
thought-tight1887
1887 T. T. Munger Appeal to Life i. 13 We are compartment-beings, thought-tight, and can shut religion up in one part, and philosophy in another, and science in still another.
1896 Pop. Sci. Jrnl. 50 267 The human mind is not built in thought-tight compartments.
1939 F. B. Fagerburg Is This Religion? v. 79 No one has ever proved the existence of God, or immortality; but such reasoning locks us up in a thought-tight circle where no thinking is possible at all.
2003 P. King No Ordinary Psychoanalyst xiv. 253 Anything which keeps the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ aspects of the parent figures separate in thought-tight, emotion-tight compartments leads to a dangerous splitting in the emotional life later.
thought transfer n. Parapsychology transference or communication of thought from one mind to another apart from the ordinary channels of sense; telepathy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > telepathy
thought-reading1843
mind-reading1846
telepathy1883
thought transference1883
thought transfer1885
mind-transference1886
psychognosis1891
1885 Amer. Naturalist 19 1159 They consist of what is called thought transfer, mesmeric experiments, phenomena of apparitions and other strange conditions of mental manifestation.
1898 Month Sept. 232 Other perplexing instances are tortured into cases of thought-transfer.
1998 Crit. Inq. 24 758 Schreber's description/experience of nerve invasions and possessions can be understood as a sort of harrowing metalinguistic depiction of instantaneous communication, of thought transfer, of immediate apodeictic comprehension.
thought-transfer v. Parapsychology (a) transitive to convey by thought or telepathically; (b) intransitive to use thought transfer or telepathy.
ΚΠ
1901 Westm. Gaz. 8 Jan. 4/2 The Psychic has only got to thought-transfer his desire for telescopic verification.
1993 Language 69 851/2 Speech communication is a telementational (i.e. thought-transferring) process based on fixed codes.
2001 P. Thurschwell Lit., Technol., & Magical Thinking, 1880–1920 v. 124 Freud can interpret the information that the thought-transferring fortune teller receives because he can read (psychoanalytically), while the fortune teller is simply an illiterate medium.
thought transference n. (a) the communication of thoughts to others; (b) Parapsychology = thought transfer n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > telepathy
thought-reading1843
mind-reading1846
telepathy1883
thought transference1883
thought transfer1885
mind-transference1886
psychognosis1891
1850 S. Neil Art Reasoning in Brit. Controversialist July 70 Words are the vehicles of thought-transference, the instruments by which we catalogize and registrate our knowledge.
1883 Proc. Soc. Psychical Res. 1882–3 1 119 In Thought-transference..both parties (whom, for convenience' sake, we will call the Agent and the Percipient) are supposed to be in a normal state.
1905 A. R. Wallace My Life II. 310 Thought, or brain-vibrations, may be carried by the ether to other brains, and thus produce thought-transference.
1943 M. Mitchell Let. 18 Mar. in Gone with the Wind Lett. (1986) 364 There must be something in thought transference, for I had the enclosed clipping laid out to send you when your letter arrived.
1997 M. Agursky in B. G. Rosenthal Occult in Russ. & Soviet Culture xi. 247 Gorky was particularly interested in the idea of thought transference, which promised great power to influence public opinion.
† thought-transferential adj. Parapsychology Obsolete rare of or relating to thought transfer.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [adjective] > telepathic
thought-reading1844
telepathic1883
telepathetic1886
thought-transferential1890
mind-reading1904
1890 O. Lodge in Proc. Soc. Psychical Res. 1889–90 6 461 The hypothesis of a direct thought-transferential means of obtaining information.
thoughtwave n. (a) an impulse of thought passing from a person's brain; Parapsychology an undulation of a hypothetical medium of thought transfer; (b) an impulse of thought passing through a person's brain; (c) an impulse of thought passing through a crowd of persons or other living beings.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > telepathy > energy involved in
thoughtwave1849
brain wave1869
telergy1884
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > passing through crowd
thoughtwave1901
1849 S. J. Clarke in R. W. Griswold Female Poets Amer. 395/1 Then kissed our thought-waves, mingling on the way.
1870 A. W. E. O'Shaughnessey Epic of Women 205 When some thin thought-wave From the shadow shore Brings the Voice once more From beyond the grave.
1901 Daily Chron. 18 Sept. 3/2 The Greek idea of a thought-wave, or wind of thought, sweeping through crowds.
a1930 D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 24 A tremendous body of silence Enveloping even the edges of the thought-waves.
1969 K.-H. Scheer & W. Ernsting Radiant Dome ii. v. 160 Automatically he screened off his thoughts behind a barrier that would not let his thoughtwaves pass.
1983 D. Smith Starlight Barking iv. 50 ‘Perhaps they're learning to hear with a sort of inner ear.’.. ‘I don't think I hold with inner ears—or thought waves. How can one be sure one's keeping one's thought to oneself?’
2003 P. Reed One 20 You're driving me oot ay Scotland, gettin me leathered, taking over ma thoughtwaves, invading ma fuckin heid and you expect me tae work for you?
thoughtway n. a way of thinking, esp. a customary one; an unconscious assumption or idea.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > customary way of thinking
thoughtway1666
thought habit1874
thought pattern1937
1666 W. Dyer Christ's Famous Titles (ed. 2) 80 How many..nay, after their seemingly comfortable..wondring walkings in thought-ways of truth, have cause to sit down, and set down their steps, marking for every step, a Sin.
1670 N. Ranew Solitude Improved by Divine Medit. iii. xxii. 336 If I never yet walked in this heavenly thought-way, the greater reason I have to hasten into it.
1871 Scribner's Monthly July 267/1 He is thenceforth to have just as much less respect for the first thought way of protection, as he values more his escape from it.
1954 L. J. Cohen Princ. World Citizenship 4 The middle-class southern English have many thoughtways, like their conception of liberty, which they do not share with Cato.
2000 Yoga May 39/1 Dhyana Meditation and ‘emotional culturing’ techniques which ‘reprogramme’ negative thoughtways and release psychological tensions.
thought-word n. a word conceived in the mind but not uttered.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > a thought, thoughts > hidden, inward
bosom1600
underthought1602
arrière-pensée1617
thought-word1844
the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > word > [noun] > other specific types of word
hard word1533
household word1574
magic word1581
grandam words1598
signal word1645
book worda1670
wordie1718
my whole1777
foundling1827–38
keyword1827
Mesopotamia1827
thought-word1844
word-symbol1852
nursery word1853
pivot word1865
rattler1865
object word1876
pillow word1877
nonce-word1884
non-word1893
fossil1901
blessed word1910
bogy-word1919
catch-all1922
pseudo-word1929
false friend1931
plus word1939
descriptor1946
meta-word1952
discourse marker1967
shrub2008
1844 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Oct. 364/1 His is the language of the heart, In which the answering heart would speak, Thought word that bids the warm tear start, Or the smile light the cheek.
a1866 J. Grote in Jrnl. Philol. (1872) 4 66 Looking at language as it naturally presents itself, its apparently most simple units are what we call words, and therefore I describe a noem as a thought-word.
1906 Hibbert Jrnl. Jan. 277 The doctrine of the Logos, the Thought-Word in the Cosmos.
1985 Mind 94 530 In order for thought-words to be mismatched one to another, some of those words must first be mistaken for others.
1998 W. J. Clancey Conceptual Coordination i. 2 For conceptualizing to serve reasoning, it cannot be made up of the products of thought-words, definitions, and reasonable arguments—but must be of a different character.
thought-world n. [compare German Gedankenwelt (18th cent.)] the combination of mental attitudes, beliefs, presuppositions, and concepts about the world characteristic of any particular people, time, place, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > product of thinking, thought > [noun] > systematic structure
thought-construction1861
thought scheme1881
thought-world1904
mindscape1930
the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > mental attitude, point of view > [noun] > of the world
world-view1848
thought-world1904
1835 T. Wade Mundi et Cordis 146 A hymning flight, which souls may hear That at midnight muse alone In a thought-world of their own.
1904 Amer. Jrnl. Theol. 8 380 The mind analyzes its experiences and constructs its thought-world which it accepts with belief as knowledge of reality.
1958 Spectator 20 June 812/2 The thought-world of the laity, high and low, was in many ways pagan and magical.
1979 J. Hick in M. Goulder Incarnation & Myth iv. 78 No Christian who has ever lived within the evangelical thought-world can read without emotion such lines as Cowper's, There is a fountain filled with Blood [etc.].
2006 Church Times 17 Mar. 28/1 Pause briefly to wonder at a thought-world in which ‘Nazi’ and ‘liberal’ are equally terms of abuse.
thought-writing n. the recording of thought, spec. by graphic symbols that directly denote ideas.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > system of writing > [noun] > thought-writing
ideography1836
word-writing1843
thought-writing1860
notion-writing1863
1860 C. H. Cottrell tr. C. C. J. von Bunsen Egypt's Place IV. v. i. 55 Period of the formation of pure picture-writing (thought-writing [Ger. Gedenkschrift]).
1883 Amer. Naturalist 17 225 He introduces Dr. Friedrich Müller's neat distinction of thought-writing and sound-writing.
1890 Smithsonian Rep. 50 The monographs on sign language and pictography..may contribute to the understanding of similar exhibitions of evanescent and durable thought-writing.
1951 M. L. Woolf Dict. Arts 522 Thought-writing, a method of conveying ideas without the use of words, known more commonly as pictography.
1969 W. Tomkins Indian Sign Lang. 74 Picture writing is..one distinctive form of thought writing without reference to sound—gesture language being the earlier form.
2000 A. Gaur Literacy & Politics of Writing iii. 30 A ‘missing link’ that breached the gap between thought writing and sound writing.

Derivatives

ˈthoughtworthy adj. deserving to be thought about.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [adjective] > worthy of notice > of considering
estimable1576
sensible1581
esteemable1612
considerablea1631
some1844
thoughtworthy1846
1846 C. Falck-Lebahn German Lang. in One Vol. iii. 32/2 Thoughtworthy, denkwürdig.
1859 C. J. Lever Davenport Dunn ii Thoughts of what alone is thought-worthy.
1955 Deming (New Mexico) Headlight 4 Feb. 5/4 Further study of the 1954 hunters' gun casualties reveals some thought-worthy information on the shooters' hunting experience.
2006 B. D. Crowe Heidegger's Relig. Origins iii. vii. 226 A philosopher can ‘compel’ someone to ‘reflection’ not only by offering suggestive intimations of thoughtworthy issues.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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