Forms: α. 1 tio-, teoʓoðian, teʓðeʓian, tæʓþiʓan, teiʓðian, teʓði(ʓ)an, 4 tiþe(n, tyþe(n, 5 tyth, 6 tieth, 6–7 tith, 4– tithe, tythe. β. 1 téoði(ʓ)an, 3 tēoþeȝen, tēþeȝen, theoþe, 4 teoþe, 4–5 tēþe, tethe(n, 5 teothe, teith(e, teythe, 6 teethe. [OE. teoʓoðian, etc., f. teoʓoða, téoða tenth, TITHE sb.1] gen. To take the tenth of, to decimate.
1. trans. To grant or pay one tenth of (one’s goods, earnings, etc.), esp. to the support of the church; to pay tithes on (one’s goods, lands, etc.).
To tithe mint (and anise) and cummin (Matt. xxiii. 23), to be conspicuously scrupulous in minutiæ while neglecting important matters of duty.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., lvii. 439. ʓe tioʓoðiað eowre mintan & eowerne dile & eowerne kymen.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xi. 42. ʓiæ teiʓðas meric & cumela & ælc wyrt.
c. 975. Rushw. Gosp., ibid. ʓe teʓðiʓas merece [etc.].
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., ibid., ʓe teoþiað.
c. 975. Rushw. Gosp., Matt. xxiii. 23. ʓe þe tæʓþiʓaþ [Lindisf. ʓeteʓðeʓes] mintæ & dile & cymen.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., ibid. ʓe þe teoðiað [v.r. teoðiʓað].
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 428. Ic teoðie ealle mine æhta.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 28. Hwat se beo of oþer hwat vntreouliche iteoþeȝed.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 5263. Þe king þer after … teþeȝede wel al is lond, as hii aȝte, wel ynou.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 898. Tyþeth weyl alle ȝoure þynges.
13[?]. Min. Poems fr. Vernon MS., xxxvii. 528. Hose wol not tiþe þat god him haþ I-lent, His lyf and his soule boþe schul be schent.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), xxxv. Þan shulde þe mayster of þe game begynne at one rowe … and tyth alle þe deere reght as þei ligge, rascayle and oþer, and delyuere it to þe procuratoures.
1562. Child-Marr., 138. The maner of tiething pigge and gose is, yf one have vijth, to pay one.
1570. Levins, Manip., 89/42. To Teethe, decimare. Ibid., 152/5. To Tythe.
a. 1641. Spelman, Tythes, xvi. (1647), 81. Military spoil, and the prey gotten in war is also tithable, for Abraham tithed it to Melchisedek.
1778. Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Rye, A peculiar way of tithing their marsh-lands, whereby they pay only 3d. per acre to the rector, while in pasture, but, if ploughed, 5s.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., II. x. 265. Ethelwolf tithed the kingdom of England.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 63. Serio-comic questions as to whether in tithing the seed it was obligatory also to tithe the stalk.
1901. Dakyns, trans. Xenophon’s Anab., V. iii. § 9. 141. Here with the sacred money he [Xenophon] built an altar and a temple, and ever after, year by year, tithed the fruits of the land in their season and did sacrifice to the goddess.
† b. With the tenth that is paid or delivered as the object: To pay or give as tithe. Obs.
854. Grant by Adulf, in Birch, Cart. Sax., II. 79. He teoðode ʓynd eall his cyne rice ðone teoðan del ealra his landa.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XIV. 84. None tythes to tythen [v.r. tetheȝen].
c. 1450. Cov. Myst., iii. (1841), 35. I tythe it [the lamb] to God of gret mercy.
1539. Bible (Great), Deut. xxvi. 12. When thou hast made an ende of tythinge all the tythes of thyne encrease.
1630. R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 510. These slaves are either the sonnes of Christians, tithed in their childhoods, Captives taken in the warres, or Renegadoes.
† 2. intr. To pay tithe; to pay the tenth, esp. to the church. Obs.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 215. Þe prest þe meneȝeð rihtliche teðien.
c. 1275. Sinners Beware, 149, in O. E. Misc., 77. If he … theoþe ryht vnder his honde, To heouene he cume myhte.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VIII. 65. Laborers … þat treuliche … tiþen.
1375. Creation, 482, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1878), 130. Kaym … tyþede of þe worste þynge, And Abel of his beste.
c. 1450. Myrc, Par. Pr., 349. They schule teythe welle & trewe.
a. 1500[?]. Chester Pl. (E.E.T.S.), 439. To holy Church neuer Teithed I, for me thought that was lorne.
1530. Palsgr., 758/2. He must nedes go forwarde for he doth tythe well.
1606. S. Gardiner, Bk. Angling, 93. He was not displeased that the Pharisee … should tythe rightly.
3. trans. To impose the payment of a tenth upon (a person, etc.); to exact tithe from.
1382. Wyclif, Heb. vii. 9. Leeuy, that took tithis, is tithid.
1546. Bale, Eng. Votaries, I. (1560), 94 b. As he and his monkes wer able to geue no more mony they tithed them after this sorte.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Heb. vii. 9. Leui also, which receiued tithes, was tithed.
1647. Trapp, Comm. Heb., vii. 6. Melchisedech did not only take that which Abraham was pleased to give him, but he tithed him, saith the text, he took the tenths, as his due.
1843. Marryat, M. Violet, xlii. 347. The cost of this noble edifice has been defrayed by tithing the whole Mormon Church. Those who reside at Nauvoo and are able to labour, have been obliged to work every tenth day in quarrying stone, or upon the building of the temple itself.
b. To exact or collect one tenth from (goods or produce) by way of tithe; to take tithe of (goods).
1591. Troub. Raigne K. John (1611), 62. The Monks, the Priors, and holy cloystred Nunnes, Are all in health,… Till I had tithde and tolde their holy hoords.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 24. When the parson or procter cometh to tythe his woolle.
1807–8. Syd. Smith, Plymley’s Lett., Wks. 1859, II. 136/2. No man who talks such nonsense, shall ever tithe the product of the earth.
1817. W. Selwyn, Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4), II. 1050. The subject matter was not in a proper state to be tithed, until it came into grass cocks.
c. intr. To levy tithe upon (in quot. transf.).
1822. T. L. Peacock, Maid Marian, vi. 210. Those who tithe and toll upon them for their spiritual and temporal benefit.
† 4. a. trans. To take every tenth thing or person from (the whole number); to take one tenth of (the whole); to divide into tenths. Obs.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 178. ʓif we teoðiað þas ʓearlican daʓas, þonne beoð þær six and ðritiʓ teoðing-daʓas.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 705. Keeping alive … two principall persons, that they might be tithed with the souldiers…. Every tenth man of the Normans they chose out by lot, to be executed.
1632. Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, V. i. But tithe our gallants,… and you will find, In every ten, one—peradventure two—That smell rank of the dancing-school or fiddle.
a. 1641. Spelman, Hist. Sacrilege (1698), 67. Coming to a Desart of Sand, divers of them were constrained to tithe themselves, and eat the tenth Man.
† b. spec. To reduce (a multitude) to one tenth of its numbers by keeping only every tenth man alive.
The instances all relate to the sacking of Canterbury by the Danes in 1011, tithe rendering decimare used with this unusual meaning: Higden’s words are ‘Grex Christi decimatur, novem scilicet occisis et decimo reservato.’
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 89. Þe folk of Crist was tiþed, þat is to seie, nyne slayn and þe tenþe i-kepte.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VI. cxcix. 206. The monkes of Seynt Augustynes abbey they tythed, that is to meane, they slewe .ix. by cruell turment, and ye tenth they kepte alyue.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 170/2. They tithed the people after an inuerted order, slaieng all by nines through the whole multitude, and reserued the tenth.
1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., VI. Wks. 1851, V. 251. The multitude are tith’d, and every tenth only spar’d.
† c. To reduce the number of (a body of soldiers, etc.) by putting to death one in every ten; also rhet. to destroy a large proportion of; = DECIMATE v. 3, 4 b. Obs.
1597. Beard, Theatre God’s Judgem. (1612), 292. Then tithing again the said tith, he slue euerie tenth knight, and that by cruell torment.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., D iij b. The Thebane Legion … was first tithed, that is, every tenth man thereof was executed.
1614. Sylvester, Bethulia’s Rescue, III. 146. These proud rocks … Which yer you scale undoubtedly will cost Ladders of Bodies, and even Tythe your Hoast.
1650. Gentilis, Considerations, 185. Whole Armies have bin tithed, putting each tenth man to death, for faults which have bin committed in them.
† d. To tithe out: to take out by lot every tenth (person or thing). Obs.
1608. Willet, Hexapla Exod., Ded. 1. Irefull Cambyses … caused euery tenth man to be tithed out for foode. Ibid., 759. The Emperour would tithe them out, and put euerie tenth man … to death.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, V. iii. 391. Which Armie … he [the Kyng] tythed out of his people, taking one onely of tenne.
† e. To form the tenth part of (anything). Obs.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., I. v. (1612), 18. Her sorrowes did not tith her joy.
