sb. and a. (adv.) Chiefly Sc. Also 4–6 thresum, 6 thriesum. [L. THREE + -SOME.] A. sb. Three persons together; three forming a company.

1

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, III. 420. It [boat] sa litill wes, þat It Mycht our þe wattir bot thresum flyt.

2

1549.  Compl. Scot., xv. 131. It is nocht possibil to gar thresum keip consel.

3

a. 1578.  Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 275. Mccleine … echapit and thriesum with him.

4

1816.  Scott, Bl. Dwarf, viii. The rest disperse by twasome and threesome through the waste, and meet me at the Trysting Pool.

5

1893.  Stevenson, Catriona, xxix. We … sat down to meat, we threesome.

6

  B.  adj. Consisting or composed of three; performed by three together; threefold, triple.

7

1839.  New Monthly Mag., LVII. 42. Any thing like a country-dance, or a threesome or foursome reel.

8

1872.  Morris, Love Is Enough (1873), 8. To have seen Your nimble feet tread down the green In threesome dance. Ibid. (1875), Æneid, V. 580. Then … they … in threesome order slip Their cloven ranks.

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1878.  H. H. Gibbs, Ombre, 4. Tresillo means a threesome game.

10

Mod. Sc.  A threesome cluster of nuts. She does her back hair in a threesome plait.

11

  b.  quasi-adv. nonce-use: cf. FOURSOME 1 b.

12

1875.  Morris, Æneid, VII. 639. Mail-coat threesome laid Of golden link.

13

  Hence Threesomeness nonce-wd., the quality of existing in threes, triplicity.

14

1853.  Athenæum, 15 Oct., 1216. What may be called the threesomeness of everything in the moral world.

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