Obs. or dial. Forms: 1 þeorf, þearf, (ðorof, ðærf), 3 (Orm.) þeorrf, 4 þerf, -e, 4–5 therf, 5 tharf, -e. See also THARF-CAKE. [OE. þeorf (:—þerf), unleavened, unsoured; of milk, sweet; Com. Teut. = OFris. therf, derf, MDu. derf (Kilian has ‘derf-brood, panis azymus’), OHG., MHG. derp unleavened, Ger. derb solid, compact, rough, coarse. ON. þjarfr unleavened, insipid. With sense 2, cf. the mod. Ger. sense of derb; app. referring to the solid, heavy, or stiff quality of unleavened bread. Pre-Teut. etymology unknown.]

1

  † 1.  Of bread, etc.: Not prepared with leaven, unleavened. Obs. exc. in THARF-CAKE.

2

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxvi. 17. Ða forma uutedlice doeʓe ðara ðorofra [Rushw. ðefra for ðerfa] mæta.

3

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom., II. 210. Þeorfe hlafas we bringað Gode to lace. Ibid. (c. 1000), Exod. xii. 39. Hi … worhton þeorfe heorþbacene hlafas.

4

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 153/32. Azimus, ðeorf.

5

c. 1200.  Ormin, 997. Bræd All þeorrf wiþþutenn berrme.

6

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6079. Wit therf bred and letus wild.

7

1382.  Wyclif, Gen. xix. 3. He made a feest, sethede therf breed, and thei eten. Ibid., Mark xiv. 1. Pask and the feeste of therf looues was aftir the secunde day.

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c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), iii. 10. Þai say we erre þat makes þe sacrement of tharf breed.

9

c. 1425.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 657/30. Panis siliginius, tharfbred.

10

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 490/2. Therf, wythe owte sowre dowe.

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1483.  Cath. Angl., 381/2. Tharfe, azimus.

12

  2.  transf. Lumpish, stiff, heavy, slow; hence fig. reluctant, unwilling, diffident, tardy. dial. Hence Tharfish a. in same sense; Tharfly adv., in a tharf or tharfish manner.

13

1747.  Hooson, Miner’s Dict., Tharf [is] when a Vein or Pipe alters from its own intrinsical Nature to another, that is more Hask, Barren, and Dry, and more bound up, and stiff.

14

1828.  Craven Gloss., Tharf, stark, stiff, metaphorically, backward, unwilling.

15

1876.  Mid-Yorks. Gloss., Tharf,… Thauf, diffident; unwilling: reluctant; tardy…. Also tharfish adj., and tharfly adv.

16

1876.  Whitby Gloss., Tharf, Tharfish, shy, diffident. Tharfly, slowly. ‘The rain comes nobbut tharfly.’

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1894.  Northumbld. Gloss., Tharf, Tharfish, lumpish, heavy-countenanced, forbidding. Applied to substances it means ‘sad,’ heavy, like liver in texture. Tharfly, slowly, reluctantly.

18