ppl. a. Forms: see THRIVE v. A. 3. [pa. pple. of THRIVE v. Cf. ON. þrifinn.]
1. Advanced in growth, grown; grown up. Now only in comb., as ill-thriven (Sc. ill-three’n).
13[?]. Cursor M., 14806 (Cott.). And said, ‘Fast es he throd and thriuen [Fairf. Þis man is wele þriuen], And mikel grace ai es him giuen.’
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 298. Hym watz þe nome Noe,… He had þre þryuen sunez.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 13760. The child … Wex & wele threvan in winturs a few.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 2709. A heuy As … A thing threuyn is & thike.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 743. The thriven Calves in Meads their Food forsake.
1806, 1843. Ill-thriven [see ILL- B.].
1907. Daily Chron., 8 May, 5/7. The pretensions of a neurotic, ill-thriven youth.
† 2. As an epithet of commendation, esp. in the alliterative phrase thriven and thro (see THRO a.2): ? Eminent, excellent, worthy, honorable, noble. Cf. THRIFTY a. 2. Obs.
13[?]. in Wright, Lyric P., 23. Ȝef he beth thryven ant thowen in theode.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 1191. Þe perle me prayed þat watz so þryuen.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1740. Hir þryuen face & hir þrote þrowen al naked, Hir brest bare bifore, & bihinde eke.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1326 (Ashmole MS.). He laschis out a lange swerde…, Threschis doun in a thrawe many threuyn dukis. Ibid., 3307. Twa hundreth thousand … all of threuen kniȝtis.
3. That has thriven; successful, prosperous.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1879), 114. The careful, thrifty, thriven man of property.
