[attrib. use of prec. adv.]
A. adjective.
1. Used chiefly with sbs. of action or position, being a kind of elliptical use of the adv. = ‘going, passing, or extending through,’ as thorough passage = passage through, thorough heat = heating through; cf. THROUGH a. 1. Obs. exc. in special applications. (See also THOROUGH- in comb. 2.)
c. 1489. [see sense 2].
c. 1566. Sir H. Gilbert, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1600), III. 20. He had heard a Fisherman … say … that he sayled very farre towards the Southeast, finding no end of the Sea: whereby he hoped a thorow passage to be that way.
1776. G. Semple, Building in Water, 47. Very large Stones carefully bedded…, to guard the thorough Foundation between the Piers from … being displaced.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 186. Give it by degrees a thorough heat.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., v. 62. The bed-room … should be well aired, but without what is termed thorough air. Ibid., xxi. 251. The patient caught a fresh cold from being exposed to the thorough air of our too well ventilated ward.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 101. The holes for the train pivots are termed ‘thorough holes.’
2. a. Of an action, etc.: Carried out through the whole of something; thoroughgoing; fully executed; applied to or affecting every part or detail. Hence, gen. That is fully what is expressed by the noun; thoroughgoing, complete, perfect, downright, entire. In quot. 1581, Completely apt or suitable. (See also THROUGH a. 2.)
Formerly sometimes hyphened to the following sb., being treated as the adv, in combination (cf. THOROUGH- 2, THROUGH-).
c. 1489. Sir S. Hamerton, in Plumpton Corr. (Camden), 63. To make a thorow search for my matter.
a. 1500. in C. Trice-Martin, Chanc. Proc. 15th C. (1904), 6. [To] make a thurgh ende with the said Piers Hous and pay hym .xx. marcs.
1581. Sidney, Astr. & Stella, lvii. He forc’t them out to find The thorowest words, fit for woes selfe to grone.
1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 92. To give her a thorough scowring.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 110. To bring vs to this thorow and effectuall vnderstanding.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. II. 850. Those who laid the first Foundation Compleat the thorow Reformation.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. 214. In the Morning, even before it was thorow Day-light.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xxv. A thorough knowledge of the world.
1780. in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1844), IV. 383. Mr. Mathews … proposed a thorough resolution … to stand by you.
1862. Burton, Bk. Hunter, 102. The thoroughest test of active scholarship.
1893. W. Lewin, in Bookman, June, 85/2. His knowledge of English literature is extensive and thorough.
b. Of a person in reference to his action or quality.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., verse 13. viii. § 4 (1669), 144/1. The soul effectually brought out of the love of sin as sin, will never be thorow-friends with it again.
1685. Dryden, Misc., II. Pref. He must perfectly understand his Authors Tongue, and absolutely command his own: So that to be a thorow Translatour, he must be a thorow Poet.
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., II. 96/2. He is a thorow master of those elements of Painting.
1829. Lytton, Disowned, xlii. He was the finest and most thorough gentleman I ever saw.
1850. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883), II. 129. Servants who give themselves out for ‘thorough.’
1884. ‘Rita,’ Vivienne, I. iii. Blanche de Verdreuil was a thorough coquette.
B. sb. [Elliptical or absolute uses of THOROUGH a. or adv.]
1. Thorough-going action or policy: in Eng. Hist. (with capital T) applied to that of Strafford and Laud in the reign of Charles I., and sometimes to that of Cromwell as Lord Protector.
c. 1634. Laud, in Strafford Papers, I. 111. And for the state, indeed, my lord, I am for Thorough.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i. I. 92. And now Wentworth exulted in the near prospect of Thorough.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. § 5. The dark gloomy countenance, the full heavy eye, which meet us in Strafford’s portrait are the best commentary on his policy of ‘Thorough.’
1900. Morley, Cromwell, IV. vi. 354. They had set up the Commonwealth without lords or monarch. They were deep in all the proceedings of Cromwellian Thorough.
† 2. A channel artificially cut or dug; a trench, esp. Agric. one made for draining a field; = THROUGH sb.2 1. Obs.
a. 1555. Bradford, Wks. (Parker Soc.), I. 303. If any man would alter the natural course of any water to run a contrary way, he shall never be able to do it with dams…. Therefore the alteration must be from the head, by making other thoroughs and devices.
1581. Coventry Leet Bk., 824. Vp a thorowe betwene two Landes in the middes of the feild by certain meare-stones there sett.
3. A furrow; water-thorough, a ‘thorough’ made for surface-draining; a water-furrow. Agric.
The Eng. Dial. Dict. has in sense ‘furrow,’ thurrow, Yorksh. to Herts and Essex, also locally written thorough, thurrough, thurrar. Cf. TH, the initial, (6).
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 5. The Ignorance and Idleness of the Plowman, who either goes so shallow, or plows his Thoroughs so wide, or misses Part of the Ground. Ibid., 22. Sow them in four Thoroughs. Ibid. (1744–50), Mod. Husbandm., I. I. 16. The ploughman … goes on plowing throughout the field, without making any … water-thoroughs.
1766. Compl. Farmer, s.v. Lucern, Then ploughing it very narrow and sharp, he made water thoroughs with the plough.
1796. W. Marshall, Midl., Gloss., Thorough, an interfurrow, between two ridges.
1888. Sheffield Gloss., Thurrow, a furrow of land.
