Forms: 4–5 þacche, 5–6 thacche, thecche, thetche, 7– thatch. [A late collateral form of THACK sb., conformed to THATCH v., which has superseded thack in literary use.]
1. Material used in thatching; straw or similar material with which roofs are covered; particularly (b.) that actually forming a roof, the thatching.
Palmetto thatch: see PALMETTO.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxvii[i]. (Bodl. MS.). Þe rafters beþ stronge and square … & beþ charged wtoute wt sclatte and tile oþre wt strawe and þacche [ed. 1495 thetche].
1555. Eden, Decades, 159. Theyr houses … are … couered with reede & thetche.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, Introd. 20. Their houses are built round, al of earth, flat-roofed, and couered with a kind of thatch.
17[?]. Pope, Imit. Spenser, iv.
| Hard by a Sty, beneath a roof of Thatch, | |
| Dwelt Obloquy, who in her early Days | |
| Baskets of Fish at Billingsgate did watch. |
1850. Prescott, Peru, III. viii. II. 161. The roofs of their dwellings, instead of tiles, were only of thatch.
1878. Bates, Centr. Amer., iv. 41. Everywhere the palms yield an abundance of poles and thatch available for building purposes.
b. 1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., 5. The Cieling and Floor above ought to be … clad in Winter with a Thatch of Hay or Straw.
1816. in Life W. Havergal (1882), 13. The pretty thatch and white walls so common hereabouts.
1867. D. G. Mitchell, Rural Stud., 77. The roof a neat thatch of wheat straw.
1889. Doyle, Micah Clarke, 228. They shelter the walls from the rain … by great overhanging thatches.
c. transf. A thatched dwelling.
1693. S. Harvey, in Dryden’s Juvenal, ix. (1697), 233. The Poor Inhabitants of yonder Thatch Call’d me their Lord.
a. 1790. T. Warton, Ode, viii. Morning. Up mounts the mower from his lowly thatch.
1793. W. Hodges, Trav. India, 67. For constant residence, these would be improved into the various thatches and huts which I have seen.
2. fig. Covering; often humorously the hair of the head.
a. 1633. Austin, Medit. (1635), 284. The very Top and Cover, my Thatch above … growes gray.
1634. S. R., Noble Soldier, II. i., in Bullen, O. Pl. (1882), I. 276. Had my Barbour Perfum’d my louzy thatch here and poak’d out My Tuskes more stiffe.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 129. ’Neath the hazel’s leafy thatch.
1888. Lowell, Heartsease & Rue, 193. We … Who’ve paid a perruquier for mending our Thatch.
1894. Mrs. Dyan, All in a Man’s K. (1899), 27. The damage he had done to his ‘thatch,’ as he graphically styled his hair.
3. Name in the West Indies for several species of palms, the leaves of which are used for thatching: see quot. and thatch-palm in 4.
1866. Treas. Bot., Thatch, Calyptronoma Swartzii, and Copernicia tectorum. Palmetto Thatch, Thrinax parviflora. Silver Thatch, Thrinax argentea.
4. attrib. and Comb., as thatch-cave, -roof, -straw, -work (also attrib.); thatch-browed, -roofed adjs.; thatch-cloak, a cloak of any thatching material; thatch-grass, a grass or similar plant used for thatching, as Cape T., Restio chondropetalus; thatch-hook: see quot.; † thatch-house, a thatched house; thatch-palm, name for various palms of which the leaves are used for thatching: in W. Indies, the genus Thrinax; in southern U.S., the genus Sabal, esp. S. umbraculifera; in Brazil, Euterpe montana (Funk’s Stand. Dict., 1895); in Lord Howe’s Island, Howea forsteriana (Cent. Dict., 1891); thatch-peg, -pin, -prick, a stick sharpened at one end to fasten down thatch; thatch-rake, an implement with curved teeth for straightening the thatching material as it is laid on the roof; thatch-rod = thatching-rod; thatch-tree (see quot. 1866); thatch-wood, brushwood arranged as thatch: see quot.
1863. W. Barnes, Poems in Dorset Dial., 61. An’ by a house, where rwoses hung avore The *thatch-brow’d window an’ the open door.
1844. B. Mayer, Mexico, xxiii. 166. An Indian shepherd-boy in his long *thatch-cloak of water-flags.
1819. Keats, Ode to Autumn, 4. The vines that round the *thatch-eaves run.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., *Grass, Cape Thatch.
[1858. Hogg, Veg. Kingd., 802. The houses at the Cape of Good Hope are commonly thatched with Restio tectorum,… sometimes whole huts are built with it.]
1886. Cheshire Gloss., *Thatch-hooks, iron hooks, driven into the spars, to hold down the first layers of straw in thatching a house.
1521. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 399. No man shall buld, make or repayre anny straue or *tache housse, for fear of fyre and burninge…, unlesse they be covered with sklattes.
1609. Ev. Wom. in Hum., IV. ii., in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. He that has not a tilde house must bee glad of a thatch house.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1147/1. Thrinax … In Jamaica these palms are commonly known by the name of *Thatch-palms. Ibid. The Silver Thatch-palm is usually said to yield … Palmetto Thatch,… extensively employed for making palm-chip hats, baskets, and other fancy articles.
1897. R. M. Gilchrist, Peakland Faggot, 62. Rafe Paramour himself, seated beneath a full-bloomed crab and busily whittling *thatch pegs.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 266/1. Thatching, is to cover … with Straw, Ferne, Rushes or Gorst, which is bound and held together by Laths, Windings, and *Thatch Pricks.
1847–94. Parker, Gloss. Her., s.v. Rake, The *thatch-rake or thatcher’s rake.
1903. Q. Rev., July, 12. They were its *thatch-rods.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 15 Aug., 1/3. The *thatch roof of a West-country cottage.
1847. Longf., Ev., I. Prel. 9. Where is the *thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers?
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 1095. To give the *thatch-straw a smoothness, it should be stroked down with a long supple rod of willow.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 344. The *Thatch Tree. The leaves … used for thatch.
1866. Treas. Bot., Thatch-tree, a name applied to palms generally in the West Indies.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Thatch-wood Work,… a mode of facing sea-walls with brushwood. Underbrush … is cut down, fagoted at its full length, and spread over the face of the banks. It is kept down by strong stakes, which have cross pins at their upper ends to rest upon the brush.
1895. Workman, Algerian Mem., xi. 113. Villages with *thatch-work houses.
