[f. prec.]
1. trans. To divide (anything) into three equal parts; to reduce to one third of the number or bulk.
1455. Sc. Acts Jas. II. (1814), II. 44/2. Þt na man gang away wt na maner of gudis quhill it be thriddyt, and partyt befor þe chiftane.
1612. Two Noble K., I. ii. What man Thirds his owne worth?
1747. Franklin, Lett., Wks. 1887, II. 97. That celerity doubled, tripled, &c., or halved, thirded, &c.
1874. Furnivall, in 10th Rep. Committee E. E. T. S., 16. Such a course would have halved or thirded the number of our subscribers.
† b. To buy or sell (college furniture, etc.) at two-thirds of its last selling price: see THIRD sb. 5. Obs.
1811. [R. Fenton], Tour Genealogy, 157. The same … tale … is always worse told by him that tells it last; till like college furniture, too often thirded, it becomes too threadbare for credit.
2. To speak in favor of (a motion, proposition, etc.) as third speaker; to support the seconder.
1656. Burton’s Diary (1828), I. 90. It has been firsted, seconded, and thirded.
1707. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), VI. 233. A motion of the lord Wharton, seconded and thirded by the lords Somers and Hallifax.
1893. E. H. Baker, in King’s Business (New Haven, Conn.), 174. That resolution … was seconded by a theological professor…. It was thirded by a pastor in the Episcopal Church.
† b. To support or back up in the third place: cf. SECOND v. 2. Obs.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 84 b. The next Captains should forthwith put themselves with their companies into their assigned sea coast townes, whom the adjoyning land-forces were appoynted to second and third.
† 3. To hoe (turnips), clean (wheat), etc., the third time. Obs.
1683. J. Erskine, Jrnl., 20 Sept. (1893), 17. I was winding and thirding some corn.
18[?]. Moor’s Suffolk MS. (Halliw.). ‘Ar them there tahnups done woth?’ ‘No, we are thirding ’em.’
