Also 6 throm, 7–9 thrumb. See also THRUMMED1. [f. THRUM sb.2]
trans. To furnish or adorn with thrums or ends of thread (or something similar); to cover with thrums or small tufts, raise a pile upon (cloth); to make shaggy. Now dial.
c. 1525. Harl. MS., 4217 art. 11. Hattes thrommyd with silke of diuerse collours.
a. 1562. Cavendish, Wolsey (1893), 88. His hosyn, frome the kne uppward, was alltogether thrommed with sylke.
1598. Florio, Irtare, to thrum, to make rough, hairie or brislie.
1809. Southey, in Q. Rev., II. 41. When the young king is first invested with the … red sash of royalty (which is made of net work, and thrummed with red and yellow feathers).
1887. Suppl. to Jamieson, Thrum, to raise a tufted pile on knitted or woven woollen stuffs, to cover woollen cloth with small tufts like thrums.
† b. transf. and fig. To fringe or clothe. Obs.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc., 13. Leaue thrumming thy Pibault Iestes with Scripture, Iron and Clay will not be tempered togither.
1592. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vii. 27. A craggy Rocks steep-hanging boss (Thrumm’d half with Ivie, half with crisped Moss).
1630. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, iv. 82. I could wish … this bank were thickly thrumb’d with grass As soft as sleave or sarcenet ever was.
† c. To twist, curl, twine; also intr. To curl (as hair). Obs.
1598. Florio, Cincinnare, to curle, or thrum any haire.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., III. i. 128. So in Æthiopia by a peculiar thrumming of their hairs, they are defended from the heat.
† d. To thrum caps: lit. to cover caps with thrums; a proverbial phrase expressing trifling, or waste of work and time. Also to thrum buttons, and absol. to thrum. Obs.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 9. The King stood not long a thrumming of buttons there.
1602. Narcissus (1893), 160. Why stand wee heere, as it were cappes a thrumming?
1614. J. Cooke, Greene’s Tu Quoque, H ij b. I’de nere stand thrumming of Caps for the matter.
1626. Middleton, Women Beware Wom., III. iii. I’ll not stand all day thrumming, But quickly shoot my bolt.
1644. Quarles, Judgm. & Mercy, 18. Are we born to thrum caps, or pick straws?
e. Naut. To sew or fasten bunches of rope-yarn over (a mat or sail) so as to produce a shaggy surface, suitable to prevent chafing or stop a leak.
1711. [see THRUMMED1 c].
1783. Capt. Inglefield, Narr. Loss Centaur, 16. All the officers, passengers and boys, who were not of the profession of seamen, had been employed thrumming a sail which was passed under the ship’s bottom.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 448, note. By thrumbing the sail, that is, sewing long bunches of ropeyarn all over it.
1838. Poe, A. G. Pym, Wks. 1864, IV. 66. A sail was thrummed, and got under the bows.
1848. G. Biddlecombe, Art of Rigging, 36. Thrumming, interplacing, in a regular manner, through intervals of matting made by a fid, short pieces of thrums, or ropeyarn.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., A vessel, when leaky, is thrummed by working some heavy spare sail, as the spritsail, into a thrummed mat, greasing and tarring it well, passing it under the bottom, and heaving all parts tight.
