a. (adv.) Chiefly Sc. Forms: 5 tymys, 6 tymouse, -ouis, -ose, tymmos, 6–7 tymous, -eous, 7– timeous, timous. [f. TIME sb. + -OUS; perh. after wrongous, righteous.]
1. Early (in the morning, or in the season); sufficiently early; done betimes: = TIMELY a. 1.
c. 1470. [implied in TIMEOUSLY].
c. 1520. Nisbet, N. T. in Scots, Jas. v. 7. Pacientlie suffring, till he resaue tymouse and laatsum fruit.
1564. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 292. Upoun lauchfull and tymous warning.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot., XXI. xvii. (S.T.S.), I. 324. Sayand … that thai sould haue goode huntting on the morne and bad him be tymmos.
1637–50. Row, Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.), 319. It cannot be a lawlull Assemblie when there is not lawfull and tymous intimation and premonition made.
1687. Royal Proclam., 12 Feb., in Lond. Gaz., No. 2221/5. We do hereby Command, Our Lyon King at Arms,… to make timeous Proclamation thereof at the Mercat-Cross of Edinburgh.
1825. Jamieson, s.v., See that ye keep timeous hours, i.e. that ye be not too late.
1910. Highland Railw. Time-table, July. Stops to take up for East of Aviemore [Inverness] on timeous notice being given to the Station Master.
b. as adv. Early, betimes. Now dial.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. XXII. xxiv. (S.T.S.), II. 135. Tymose in the morning he departit of the toun.
1679. J. Russell, in Kirkton, Hist. Ch. Scot., etc. (1817), App. 430. Timous in the morning they went to their prayers.
1892. Ballymena Obs. (E.D.D.). A’ll be up gye an’ timus in the mornin’.
2. Coming in due time; suitable or proper in respect of time; well-timed, seasonable, opportune; = TIMELY a. 2.
c. 1615. Bacon, Advice to Sir G. Villiers. By a wise and timous inquisition, the peccant humours and humourists may be discovered, purged, or cut off.
1656. J. Fergusson, On Colossians, 136. Those fruits were timeous, and constant.
1729. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), III. 451. I fear his writings do a world of mischief, without a timeous antidote.
1849. Aytoun, Lays Scot. Cav. (ed. 2), 96. His retreat was timeous, for General Mackay … had despatched a strong force … to make him prisoner.
1884. Athenæum, 1 March, 271/1. The book [R. McCormick’s ‘Voyages’] is timeous.
3. a. Temporal; of finite time: = TIMELY a. 3. b. Keeping time, moving in time or measure. nonce-uses.
1855. Bailey, Spir. Leg. in Mystic, etc., 103. Duration, timeous and æterne, and space.
1884. D. Grant, Lays & Leg. North, 112. Never yet to mortal measures Raise and fell sic timous feet.
