Forms: see below. [OE. þridda, -e, þird(d)a, -e, Comm. Teut. and Indo-Eur.; = OFris. thredda, OS. thriddio (MLG. drudde, derde, Du. derde), OHG. dritto (MHG., G. dritte), ON. þriðe, -i (Sw. tredje, Da. tredie), Goth. þridja, :—OTeut. *þriðjó-, :—Indo-Eur. *tritjós: cf. Gr. τρίτος, L. tertius, Skr. trtīyas.
The metathesis of third for thrid appears already in ONorthumb. c. 950, but thrid was the prevalent type down to the 16th c.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
α. 1 (3) þridda, 2–5 þridde, 3 þride, 4 þryd(e, threid, þred, 4–5 thrydde, thride, þrid, thridd, 4–6 thridde, thryd, thredde, 4–7 thred, 4–6, Sc. –8 thrid, 5 thryde, thrudde, (tryd).
a. 800. Cynewulf, Christ, 726. Wæs se þridda hlyp.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 298. Þridde mæʓen is.
c. 1200. Ormin, Ded. 6. Broþerr min i Godess hus, Ȝet o þe þride [elsewhere þridde] wise.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3516. Ðe ðridde moneð in is cumen.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8471 (Cott.). Þe thride boke efter þa tua. Ibid., 16892. To rise þe thrid [Gött. thred] dai. Ibid., 18646. To þe thrid [G. threid] morn.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 300. The Iolef Iapheth watz gendered þe þryd.
1382. Wyclif, Acts xx. 9. He ledd by sleep fel down fro the thridde stage.
c. 1450. Two Cookery-bks., 113 (Laud MS.). Ye thrudde perty shal be sugar.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., Kalendar 1 Feb., S. Ignatius bischop of Antioch threid efter S. Peter.
1606. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1816), IV. 279/2. The thrid day of this instant.
c. 1730. Thrid [see B. I. 1].
β. 1 (Northumb.) ðirda, ðirdda, 2 þerdde, 4 þirde, 5–6 thyrd(e, 5–7 thirde, 6 theyrd, thurd, 5– third.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xii. 38. ʓif on ða ðirdda wacan ʓe-cymeð.
a. 1200. Moral Ode, 138 (Lamb. MS.). Nolde he for al middenerd þe þerdde [v.r. þridde] [dei] þer abiden.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXII. 264. And matheu þe þirde.
1446. Lydg., Nightingale Poems, i. 299. Ye that are in the third age of your lyfe ande passed morow & prime.
1473. Warkw., Chron. (Camden), 3. In the thyrde ȝere of the reygne of Kynge Edwarde.
1552. Huloet, Thyrde fayre or market proclaymed.
B. Signification. I. adj.
As with other ordinals, usually the third: see THE def. art. B. 18.
1. The ordinal numeral corresponding to the cardinal three: last of three; that comes next after the second. a. with sb. expressed.
a. 800. [see A. α].
971. Blickl. Hom., 15. Þy þriddan dæʓe he of deaþe ariseþ.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 14. Þe þridde dole.
1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 1664. Here bigynnes þe thred part.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 141. The thryde day of Marche.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, III. xi. (S.T.S.), I. 292. To be haldin þe thrid day eftir þe nundinis.
1552. Huloet, Thyrde sillable, ante penultima.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 30/1. The finger called Medicus, or thirde finger.
c. 1730. Burt, Lett. N. Scotl. (1818), I. 20. Inquire for such a launde…, where the gentleman stayd, at the thrid stair, that is three stories high.
1847. Helps, Friends in C., I. vi. 92. I prefer real life … where there is no third volume [as in a novel] to make things straight.
b. Following the names of sovereigns, popes, etc.: cf. SECOND A. 1 b.
1414. Rolls of Parlt., IV. 59/2. Kyng Henry the Thridde.
1550. Bale, K. Johan (Camden), 42. Pope Innocent the thred.
1735. Johnson, Lobo’s Abyssinia, Descr., v. 73. King John the Third [of Portugal].
c. with sb. understood.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxii. 26. ʓelic ðe æftera … & ðe ðirda [Rushw. þridde].
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 133. Ðreo þing … þet oðer is goddes word and þet ðridde is weldede.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 358 (Cott.). Þe thrid es air, and fir þe ferth.
1382. Wyclif, Dan. v. 7. Shal be the thrid in my rewme.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xv. 51 (Harl. MS.). And so he wrote to the thrid, þat seid she lovid him.
1552–3. Inv. Ch. Goods, Staffs., in Ann. Lichfield (1863), IV. 70. iij vestements, one of whyte fustian, another of blacke chamblet, & the thryd of blewe sarsynet.
1662. Playford, Skill Mus., II. (1674), 92. Six strings,… the first … is called the Treble; the second, the Small Mean; the third, the Great Mean.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxxviii. ‘Hush! thou knave!’ said a third; ‘how know’st thou who may be within hearing?’
d. Gram. In third person: see PERSON sb. 8. Also in third declension, conjugation, and in names of tenses, as third future, preterite, where the reference is to a conventional order of enumeration adopted by grammarians.
1530. Palsgr., 93. In verbes of theyr thyrde conjugation I fynde a litell more difficultie.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. (Sommer), 137. He had … forgotten in speaking of him selfe to vse the third person.
1764. W. Primatt, Accentus Rediv., 111. Provided they were third persons plural.
1848. J. T. White, Xenophon’s Anab., II. iv. § 5, Notes (1872), 116. Sometimes … the third future is used, instead of the common future, to point out more forcibly all but immediate occurrence of some future action.
1857. Williams, Sanskrit Gram., § 415. Fortunately … the third preterite occurs but rarely in the better specimens of Hindú composition.
2. Additional to and distinct from two others already known or mentioned. Third person (in Law) = THIRD PARTY. † Third place, a place which is neutral ground to two persons (obs.).
c. 1290. Beket, 415, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 118. Þat þridde þing ȝeot mest of alle and sonest in wrathþe hem brouȝte.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 3. And þe þrid, if he be moost obedient to God and to His lawe.
1579. W. Wilkinson, Confut. Familye of Loue, 17 b. Incorporall and immateriall essences cannot be coupled in the same third matter.
1709. E. Ward, trans. Cervantes, 189. Any thing is easily believ’d that is to the Disreputation of a third Person.
1757. Chesterf., Lett., 31 Dec. I could neither visit, nor be visited by, the Ministers of those two Crowns: but we met every day, or dined at third places.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), I. 444. The clause … extends … to third persons only; not to the persons conveying, or those to whom lands are conveyed to uses.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xvii. Martin Lightfoot … was as a third hand and foot to him all day long.
1878. Stewart & Tait, Unseen Univ., iv. § 122. 133. There can be no third thing besides body and void. [Cf. TERTIUM QUID.]
† b. Third tongue, a backbiter; a slanderer. Used by Wyclif and Coverdale to render lingua tertia of the Vulgate, in LXX. γλῶσσα τρίτη. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Ecclus. xxviii. 16. The thridde tunge manye men stirede. Ibid. (1388), 19, margin. The tunge of the preuey bacbiter is clepid the thridde tunge … and the bacbiter him silf hath the thridde tunge, for he, as the thridde, makith debate betwen a man and his neiȝbore.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xxviii. 14–15. The thirde tonge hath disquieted many one, and dryuen them from one londe to another…. The thirde tonge hath cast out many an honest woman, and robbed them of their labours.
3. Third part = B. II. 1. Now rare: see PART sb. 5.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 973 (Cott.). Þe half parte gladli or þe thrid We wil þe giue.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, II. 305. Þe thrid part went to þe forray.
1483. Cath. Angl., 385/2. Þe Thryd parte of a halpeny, trissis.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent, 228. The Monkes should enioy the whole tongue, and two third partes of the rest of the body.
1611. Bible, Rev. viii. 8. The third part of the sea became blood.
4. The last of each successive group of three; one in every three, i.e., one third of the whole. Third penny: one third of the whole sum; spec. (see quot. 1706). Third sheaf and teind: see third and teind, II. 1.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xix. 87. Sum … at ilke a thridd passe knelis doune apon þe erthe.
1423. Cal. Letter Bk. I. Lond. (1909), 295. Have he, for his labour, the tryd peny that shal be recovered.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), II. 315. Thair come in be sie sa meikill victuallis that it come downe the thrid penny.
1597. [see EVERY 1 e (c)].
1627. Rep. Parishes Scotl. (Bann. Cl.), 3. Ten landis … payis presentlie the thrid scheiff and teind led.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Third penny, the third part of Fines and Profits, arising from Law-Processes, which in every County was heretofore allow’d to the Sheriff; the other two Parts being appointed for the King’s Use.
1727. Swift, Poisoning E. Curll, Wks. 1755, III. I. 152. You shall have your third share of the Court poems.
1904. [see QUARTAN A. 1, def.].
b. Third-day ague, tertian ague.
1817–18. Cobbett, Resid. U. S. (1822), 319. You would frighten him into a third-day ague.
5. Combinations, collocations or phrases with special meaning (some of which may be used attrib. or as adj.), as third base, cousin, cousinship, degree, form (hence third-former), heir, magnitude, person, story, term (hence third-termery): see the sbs.; third ague, tertian ague; third best, third in point of quality, that is next inferior to the SECOND BEST; third-day, the Quaker name for Tuesday, as being the third day of the week; third estate, the Commons: see ESTATE sb. 6; third floor, (a) in England, the floor or story of a building separated by two from the ground floor; (b) in Sc., U.S., etc., the third story, counting the ground floor as the first; third hour, (a) among the Jews, the third of the twelve equal divisions of time between morning and evening; the hour between 8 and 9 A.M.; (b) in R. C. Ch., the hour of TIERCE; third house, (U.S. polit. slang): see quot.; third man, Cricket, a fielder placed between point and short slip, but further out; an additional short slip; also, the position occupied by him; third order: see TERTIARY A. 5; third penny: see 4 above; † third place: see 2 above; third point, Arch. = TIERCE point: see quot.; third rail, in some systems of electric railways, an additional rail that conveys the current; third rime, rhyme, = TERZA RIMA; third season man, = third year man; third staff, = third stave; † third state, = third estate; third stave: see quot.; † third tongue: see 2 b above; third ventricle, that portion of the central cavity of the brain that lies between the optic thalami; third year man, a student who has entered upon the third (often the last) year of a course of study.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 131. In the very fit of a *Third Ague.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XIII. 321. He was the *thrid best knycht, perfay, That men wist liffand in his day.
1859. Habits Gd. Soc., iii. 155. I am wondering whether everybody arranges his wardrobe as our ungrammatical nurses used to do ours, under the heads of ‘best, second-best, third-best,’ and so on.
1901. Daily News, 31 Jan., 7/3. The *third-cousinships of German Princes.
1677. in Penn, Trav. Holland (1694), 9. A Monthly Meeting … upon the third *third day of the Month.
1901. Scotsman, 5 April, 6/4. In the *third degree in [Free] Masonry a skull and cross-bones are employed.
1604. in Rymer, Fœdera, XVI. 562/1. Knightes and Burgesses … doe present the Bodie of the *Thirde Estate.
1855. F. B. Wells, trans. Thierry (title), The Formation and Progress of the Tiers État, or Third Estate in France.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xv. 185. That portion of the third estate which was represented by the knights of the shire.
1908. Daily Chron., 14 Aug., 8/6. Immediately after the arrival of the *third-floor-back lodger a transformation takes place.
1687. Settle, Refl. Dryden, 63. So old a Phrase,… that it has been in twenty *third-Form School-Boys Exercises.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., ii. A *third-former nearly six feet high.
c. 1400. 26 Pol. Poems, xxvi. 208. Men seyen ‘good geten vntrewly, The *iijde eyre browke hit ne may.’
1484. Caxton, Fables of Auian, xviii. Of the thynge wrongfully and euylle goten, the thyrd heyre shalle neuer be possessour of hit.
1382. Wyclif, Acts ii. 15. It is the *thridde our of the day.
1706. trans. Dupin’s Eccl. Hist. 16th C., II. v. 43. Called Tierce, because it began at the Third Hour of the day.
1889. Farmer, Dict. Amer., s.v. Lobby, The lobby is also called the *‘Third House.’
1905. Westm. Gaz., 13 Feb., 10/1. In the constellation of the Twins, near the *third-magnitude star Mu.
1871. Hoppe, *Third man, einer der fielders im Cricket.
1881. Standard, 14 June, 3/8. The catch that dismissed him was an easy one at third man.
1891. W. G. Grace, Cricket, 260. Third man must ask the bowler whether he should stand rather fine or square.
1629. Wadsworth, Pilgr., vii. 72. There is besides another Nunnery of the *third Order of St. Francis.
1753. Challoner, Cath. Chr. Instr., 184. Besides these there are the … Nuns of the third Order of St. Francis.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 24 Dec., 6/3. The … version of the Rule of the Third Order found … in the Capistran Convent in the Abruzzi.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., *Third Point, or Tierce-point, in architecture, the point of section in the vertex of an equilateral triangle. Arches or vaults of the third point … are those consisting of two arches of a circle, meeting in an angle a-top.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 23 July, 4/3. A new electric railway … built on the *‘third rail’ system, which is believed to represent a great economy as coinpared with the overhead system.
1905. Daily Chron., 2 Feb., 3/4. Avoiding the dangers which had been experienced with the third-rail system.
1656. H. Phillips, Purch. Patt. (1676), A iv b. An house of the *third rate.
1820. Byron, Lett. to Murray, Wks. (1846), 505/1. You will find … in *third rhyme (terza rima),… Fanny of Rimini.
a. 1860. Alb. Smith, Lond. Med. Stud. (1861), 17. His mentor is ready in the shape of a *third-season man.
1667. E. Chamberlayne, Pres. St. Eng., I. xix. (1684), 322. Of the *Third State, or Commons of England.
1898. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, *Third Stave, a name given to the stave upon which pedal music is written for the organ.
1679. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., vii. 130. Your Ground-plot, or second or *third Story.
1890. Cincinnati Commerc. Gaz., 30 June. There would be no *third termery in it, as he [Pres. Cleveland] had not two consecutive terms.
II. sb.
1. A third part (B. I. 3) of anything; any one of three equal parts into which a whole may be divided.
Third and teind, one-third of the produce and one-tenth of the remainder (making two-fifths of the whole) paid as rent.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Macc. x. 29. Nowe Y assoile ȝou … of tributis, and I forȝeue to ȝou the pricis of salt, and forȝeue crownys, and the thriddis [1388 thridde part] of seed.
1479. Act. Dom. Conc. (1839), 32/2. Þat þe schiref … deliuer þe said vmfra & his tennandis ane evinly thrid þarof.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. iv. 19. Men, Who of their broken Debtors take a third, A sixth, a tenth, letting them thriue againe.
1705. Addison, Italy, 136. No Sentence can stand that is not confirm’d by Two Thirds of this Council.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 139. In most parts of Strathallan, the land is kept in thirds, (i.e.) one third in tillage for three year, and two thirds always grass.
1852. R. F. Burton, Falconry in Vall. Indus, vi. 71. One will require at least a third more breaking than another.
1884. J. Tait, in U. P. Mag., April, 156. The Master was to have the third and teind shorn and set up.
1893. Law Times, XCIV. 504/1. Whether such a gift … would be divisible into moieties or thirds.
2. Law. (Mostly pl.) The third of the personal property of a deceased husband allowed to his widow. Also, the third of his real property to which his widow might be legally entitled for her life (obs. exc. Hist.). Cf. TERCE 2.
1396. in Scott. Antiq., XIV. 318. Swa mykyl as pertenys to the modyr of the forsaid Erle … be resone of hir thryd.
1540. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 106. She [the wife] to be fullie content with hir thirds.
1596. Bacon, Use of Law, Wks. 1879, 1. 585/1. By this course of putting lands into use there were many inconveniences, as … The wife was defrauded of her thirds; the husband of being tenant by courtesy [etc.].
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., I. 113.
1636. in Crt. & Times Chas. I. (1848), II. 239. Having renounced her jointure and thirds, she may be so utterly undone.
1664. Early Rec. Groton, Mass. (1880), 145. Vnto which alienation the wiues of them both doe giue their consent to the giuing vp their thirds.
1709. S. Sewall, Diary, 18 Nov. 30l. more to Grace, and 12. to her Brother, to come out of their Mothers Thirds now to be divided.
1767. [see DOWER sb.2 1].
1864. Thoreau, Maine W. (1894), 207. There you are never reminded that the wilderness which you are threading is, after all, some villager’s familiar wood-lot, some widow’s thirds.
† 3. A third of the proceeds of captures, or of certain fines, forfeitures, etc., of which two-thirds were due to the king. Obs.
1429. in Rymer, Fœdera, X. 422. Eny Thriddes, or other Gaines of Werre.
1444. in Coll. Hist. Staff. (1891), XII. 319. The thrides of the thrides of all maner Prisoners, Prises, and wynynges.
1627. in Crt. & Times Chas. I. (1848), I. 234. A commission to proceed against recusants for their thirds due to his majesty by law.
4. Sc. Eccl. Hist. See quot. 1838.
1573. Satir. Poems Reform., xlii. 812. Thir thriddis, I say, but stopping ony, The Kirkis Collectouris suld vptane, Syne vnto the Excheker gane.
c. 1575. Balfour’s Practicks (1751), 143. The teindis, landis, maillis, fermis, and dewteis of landis assumit in the thriddis of benefices.
1586. in Dunfermline Regr. (Bann. Cl.), 449. The haill prelaceis of our reallme ar bund and obleissit to warrand their thridis to ws fra thair awin deidis.
1838. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., Thirds.… Before the annexation of the year 1587, the King, in order to prevent the entire abstraction of their provisions from the acting clergy,… assumed into his own hands a third of the revenues of all ecclesiastical benefices, which he intrusted to the Commissioners of Plat, who assigned to the ministers respectively sufficient provisions, and reserved the remainder for the King. [See PLAT sb.3 6.]
† 5. pl. The sum paid by an incoming freshman for the furniture, etc., of his college rooms, usually assessed at two-thirds of the amount paid by the preceding tenant. Obs.
1687. Wilding, in Collect. (O. H. S.), I. 255. Reced of my Chum for thirds.
1826. C. Wordsworth, Lett., in Ann. Early Life, I. 38. Tell my father that I expect he will hear something about ‘the thirds’ which we pay for furniture, &c.
1853. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, I. iv. Mr. Filcher then explained the system of thirds, by which the furniture … was to be paid for.
1858. Hogg, Shelley, I. 69. Transferring the … movables to the successor on payment of thirds, that is, of two-thirds of the price last given.
6. Mus. A note three diatonic degrees above or below a given note (both notes being reckoned); also (usually) the interval between this and the given note, equivalent either to two tones (major third), or to one tone and one diatonic semitone (minor third); also, the harmonic combination of two such notes.
Diminished third, an interval equal to two diatonic semitones, being less by a chromatic semitone than a minor third.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 70. Which distances make a Concord or consonant Harmony?… A third, a Filt, a Sixt, and an eight.
1662. Playford, Skill Mus., I. v. (1674), 20. You will tune from Sol to Mi which is a Third.
1752. trans. Rameau’s Treat. Musick, 34. Those Notes, which are a Third above, are deemed Thirds.
1855. Browning, Toccata of Galuppi’s, vii. Those lesser thirds so plaintive. Ibid. (1855), Lovers’ Quarrel, xviii. We shall have the word in a minor third There is none but the cuckoo knows.
1884. Parry in Grove, Dict. Mus., IV. 102. Third, one of the most important intervals in modern music…. Three forms are met with in modern music—major, minor, and diminished.
7. The third of the subdivisions of any standard measure or dimension which is successively subdivided in a constant ratio; the subdivision next below seconds: see PRIME sb.2 2. † Formerly, in Scotland, a weight of account = the 13,824th part (1 ÷ 243) of a grain (obs.).
1594. J. Davis, Seaman’s Secr. (1643), D j b. Euery degree … doth containe 60 minutes, and euery minute 60 seconds, and euery second 60 thirds, &c.
1604. in Moryson Itin., I. (1617), 282 (Table of Scottish Weights or Coins). xx. s. [sterling] = 06 pennyweights, 10 graines, 16 mites, 18 droits, 10 periots, English Weight; 07 deniers, 21 graines, 07 primes, 01 seconds, 09 thirds, 19 fourths, Scottish Weight.
1694. Holder, On Time, ii. 32. To divide an Hour into 60′ (Minutes), a Minute into 60″ (Second Minutes), a Second Minute into 60″′ (Thirds).
1840. Lardner, Geom., 56. This system of division is sometimes carried even further, a second being divided into sixty equal parts called thirds; but it is more usual to express small angles or arcs in decimal parts of a second.
† b. In decimal fractions: see quots. Obs.
1660. J. Moore, Arith., 10. Some call their Tenth part Primes, the Hundereth parts Seconds, the 1000 parts Thirds.
1766. Hutton, School Master’s Guide, 55. The 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, &c. places of decimals … are denominated the places of primes, seconds, thirds, and fourths, &c. respectively.
8. Comm. pl. Goods of the third degree of quality.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 163. Flour or bread,… .of the usual London manufacture, as seconds, thirds, and browns.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 186. Crown glass is sold, according to its quality, under four different denominations—firsts, seconds, thirds, and fourths.
1888. Times (weekly ed.), 14 Sept., 19/1. Fruit should be sorted into bests and seconds and in some cases into thirds.
1903. Daily Chron., 21 April, 2/6. Cork butter.—Firsts, 86s.; seconds, 80s.; thirds, 78s.
9. Elliptical uses of the adj. passing into sb.
a. Third of kin (Sc.): one related in the third degree of consanguinity.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), III. 260. The erle of Arrane, lord of Hammiltoun, Evin thrid and thrid to him [that] weiris the croun.
1569. Reg. Privy Council Scot., II. 39. The said Erll and the said umquhile Johnne Suthirland quha wes slane thrid and ferdis of kin [the Earl’s father was cousin to John’s grandmother]. Ibid. (1583), III. 622. Quha and he ar secundes and thriddes of kin.
1892. G. Stewart, Shetland Fireside T., ix. (ed. 2), 71. Auld Ibbie Bartley, dat wis trids o’ kin to my wife’s foster midder, an’ her oey.
b. Elliptical for third person (in Grammar); third day (of the month); third chapter (of a book of the Bible); third year (of a reign).
1530. Palsgr., Introd. 33. The thyrde syngular [endeth] … most commenly in T.
1536. Cromwell, in Merriman, Life & Lett. (1902), II. 1. From Eltham thridde of Janua[ry].
1539. Tonstall, Serm. Palm Sund. (1823), 86. It is written in the third of Matthewe.
1747. Gentl. Mag., May, 247/1. On Sunday the 3d of May.
1857. Williams, Sanskrit Gram., § 330. It is the only conjugation that rejects the nasal in the 3d. plur.
c. A card of the third size; also thirds card: see quots.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., Thirds card, a card 11/2 by 3 inches, the size most used for a man’s visiting-card. (Eng.).
1892. Chiswick Press Calendar. Sizes of Cards … Extra Thirds 3 × 17/8. Thirds 3 × 11/2 in.
d. Third of exchange: the last of a set of three bills of exchange of even tenor and date: see EXCHANGE sb. 5.
e. Generally, the word omitted being usually obvious from the context; esp. in familiar use.
a. 1635. Sibbes, Confer. Christ & Mary (1656), 104. He must be a friend or enemy; there is no third in God.
1859. Habits Gd. Soc. (new ed.), 44. In the third [class railway-carriage] he will have to sit next to an odoriferous ploughboy.
1864. Bowen, Logic, iii. 49. The Axiom which is usually called the Law of Excluded Third.
1889. Linskill, Golf, iii. (1895), 15. Odd No. 1. ‘Stroke a hole.’… Sometimes a ‘third’ is given, which means the application of Odd No. 1 at every third hole.
1891. Cent. Dict., Third.… In base-ball, same as third base.
1900. Monthly Rev., I. 46. The Russian peasant who travels third is not accustomed to luxuries.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 30 Dec., 11/1. It is of course the Third Preference stock which is directly affected…. Some operators are anticipating that the Thirds will get a half per cent. more than for last year.
Mod. Mr. A. did badly; he only got a third in Greats.
