[f. thanks, pl. of THANK sb. + GIVING vbl. sb.]
1. The giving of thanks; the expression of thankfulness or gratitude; esp. the act of giving thanks to God.
1533. Tindale, Supper of Lord, E iv b. One or other Psalme or prayer of thankes giuyng in the mother tongue.
1539. Bible (Great), 1 Tim. iv. 4. For all the creatures of God are good, and nothing to be refused, yf it be receaued with thankesgeuynge.
1562. Winȝet, Cert. Tract., iii. Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 29. Gyf sic zeirlie memorial in blythnes and thankisgeifing wes haldin.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., II. i. 193. I cannot stay thanks-giuing.
1658. Whole Duty Man, v. § 8. The fifth part of prayer is thanksgiving; that is, the praising and blessing God for all his mercies.
1842. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), III. ix. 159. Think how full of thanksgiving were my prayers last night.
b. A public celebration, with religious services, held as a solemn acknowledgement of Divine favors; also, a day set apart for this purpose; spec. in U.S., Thanksgiving Day (see 3 b).
1641. Nicholas Papers (Camden), 10. It was resolved that there shalbe on ye 7th of September next a publique thanksgiving for this good accord betweene ye 2 nacions.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Warres, 217. Publick Thanksgivings were Ordered to be given to God for this Victory.
1760. J. Adams, Diary, 26 Nov. Night before Thanksgiving.
1869. Mrs. Stowe, Oldtown Folks, xxvii. Great as the preparations were for the dinner, everything was so contrived that not a soul in the house should be kept from the morning service of Thanksgiving.
2. An act or expression of thanks; esp. a form of words, a prayer or religious service used to render thanks for Divine benefits.
General Thanksgiving, the first of the forms of thanksgiving in the Book of Common Prayer, that for the blessings of life in general. Great Thanksgiving, in early and oriental liturgies: see quot. 1708–22.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xxxix. [xl.] 3. He hath put a new songe in my mouth, euen a thankesgeuynge vnto oure God.
1552. Bk. Com. Prayer (heading), The Thankes geuing of Wonen after Childe birth. Ibid. (1662), Prayers & Thanksgivings upon several occasions…. A General Thanksgiving.
1708–22. J. Bingham, Chr. Antiq., XV. iii. (1845), 770. After this the priest went on with the εὐχαριστία properly so called, that is the great thanksgiving to God for all his mercies, both of creation, providence and redemption.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 185. The ministers selected from that liturgy such prayers and thanksgivings as were likely to be least offensive to the people.
3. attrib. and Comb.
1641. Evelyn, Diary, Aug. The next Sunday was the thanksgiving sermons perform’d in Col. Goreing’s Regiment.
1814. Southey, Carmen Triumph., xvi. With one consent, The high thanksgiving strain to heaven is sent,… Glory to God! Deliverance for Mankind!
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxiii. (1861), V. 17. They had still in their ears the thanksgiving sermons and thanksgiving anthems.
b. Thanksgiving day, a day set apart for public thanksgiving for Divine goodness; spec. in the United States, an annual festival religious and social, now appointed by proclamation and held on the last Thursday of November.
The first celebration was held by the Plymouth colony in 1621, in thankfulness for their first harvest in America after a year of struggle and privation, and the usage became general in New England. After the Revolution, it extended to the Middle States, and later to the West; after the Civil War gradually to the South. Its national observance has been annually recommended by the President since 1863.
1674. Josselyn, Voy. New Eng., 214. Towards night I returned to Boston again, the next day being Thanksgiving day, on Fryday the Tenth day we weighed Anchor.
1704. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), V. 460. Sir Christopher Wrenn is erecting a throne in St. Pauls cathedral for her majestic to sitt in on the thanksgiving day.
1714. S. Sewall, Diary, 25 Nov. Thanks-giving day; very cold.
1812. Abigail Adams, Lett. to Caroline A. Smith, in Lett. (1840), 27 Nov., 272. Yesterday was our Thanksgiving day. In our own way, and with tempers suited to the occasion, we gave thanks for those blessings which we felt had been granted to us in the year past.
1844. Whittier, Pumpkin, iii. Ah! on Thanksgiving day … When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board The old broken links of affection restored.
1903. Daily Chron., 6 Nov., 5/1. Thanksgiving Day long remained an institution peculiar to New England, but it has been observed annually in New York State since 1817.
