Forms: α. 1–3 tác(e)n, 2 takan, 2–3 takenn (Orm.), 3–7 taken, 4 takein, 4–6 takin, -yn, 6 taikin, 8 -en, 7 tackyn. β. 2–4 tocne, 3 tocken, 3–5 tokne, 4 -ene, -in, -un, 5 toocun, tookne, tokyng, 5–6 -yn, tooken, (6 tukne), 7 toakin, 4– token. [OE. tácen, tácn; = OFris. têken, têkn, teiken (WFris. teiken, † teeckne), OS. têcan (MLG., MDu., LG. têken, Du. teeken), OHG. zeihhan (MHG., Ger. zeichen), ON. teikn (tákn from OE.), Sw. tecken, Da., Norw. tegn, all neuter:—OTeut. *taik-nom (in Goth. taikns fem.:—*taiknis), cognate with *taik-jan, OE. tǽcean to show, TEACH.]
1. Something that serves to indicate a fact, event, object, feeling, etc.; a sign, a symbol. In token of, as a sign, symbol, or evidence of.
c. 890. trans. Bæda’s Hist., I. viii. (1890), 42. & heora stowe bræddon & weorðodon, swa swa siʓefæst tacon.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xxviii. 196. To tacne ðæt he his ʓeweald ahte.
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues, 135. Nis þat non god tocne of ripe manne.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 16574. Þe rode þai scop þan as þai wald, Als we þe taken se.
c. 1315. Shoreham, vi. 15. In tokne þat pays scholde be By-tuexte god and manne.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, lviii. E vij. [The queen] shewed hym many signes and tokenes of loue.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, lxxxiv. 266. Charlemayne … kyssyd Huon in token of peace.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., III. xiii. 95. Bearing … a satchell ful of haye in token of their bondage and seruice.
1686. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 409. Friendly cautions are Tokens of Love.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina (1784), II. i. 5. He gave him … a cordial slap on the back, and some other equally gentle tokens of satisfaction.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Briery Creek, iii. The hollow tree, from which the mists had drawn off, leaving a diamond token on every leaf.
† b. A sign of the zodiac. Obs. rare.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 164. Sy þæt ðonne þære sunnan ryne beo on þam tacne þe man uirgo nemneð.
c. 1050. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia (1885), VIII. 303. Seo sunne wunað on þam twelf tacnum.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Kings xxiii. 5. Them that brent incense … to the Sonne, and the Mone, and the twelue tokens, and to all ye hoost of heauen.
† c. An ensign, a standard. (Only OE.)
a. 1000. Gloss. Prudentius, 45. Eal werod ʓehwyrfedum tacnum [versis signis] … foron.
a. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Spelm.), lxxiii. 6 [lxxiv. 4]. Hi asetton tacna heora tacna.
† d. The sign of an inn, etc. Obs. rare–0.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 495/2. Tokne, or sygne of ane in, idem quod seny, supra (P. signe of an ostry).
e. Coal-mining (S. Wales). A thin seam of coal indicating the vicinity of a thicker bed.
1883. in Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining.
2. A sign or mark indicating some quality, or distinguishing one object from others; a characteristic mark.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. iv. 15. God him sealde tacn, þæt nan þæra … hine ne ofsloʓe.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6124. Bot in þat huse noght he yode Þar he fand taken wit þe blode.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. v. (Bodl. MS.). Whanne childrenne voice chaungeþ it is a tokene of Puberte.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), xxiii. 247. Þat beren the tokne vpon hire hedes of a mannes foot.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 281. A maister armoureur … in his werkis had a takyn that his werkis war knawin by.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr., 95. The tokens of a valyant and renowmed captaine are, his woundes and hurtes.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 115 b. Virgill … doth … describe the tokens of a good Horse.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, VI. xiv. The tokens on his helmet tell The Bruce, my Liege: I know him well.
1822. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Chimney-Sweepers. One unfortunate wight … by tokens was discovered to be no chimney-sweeper.
b. A spot on the body indicating disease, esp. the plague. Now rare or Obs.
1634. T. Johnson, Parey’s Chirurg., XXII. xiii. (1678), 500. [In Plague] spots (vulgarly called Tokens) appear over all the body.
1666. J. H., Treat. Gt. Antidote, 5. The Tokens are, I am confident, Marks sent from God, and it is as impossible to cure any that have them, as to contradict the Divine Decree.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1756), 225. Those Spots they call’d the Tokens were really gangreen Spots, or mortified Flesh in small Knobs as broad as a little silver Peny, and hard as a piece of Callus or Horn.
1896. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 932. In the seventeenth century they [purpuric patches] were known as the ‘Tokens.’ Ibid., 934. Petechial eruptions or ‘tokens.’
3. Something serving as proof of a fact or statement; an evidence.
Beowulf (Z.), 1655. Beowulf maþelode … hwæt we þe þas sælac … brohton tires to tacne.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John vi. 30. Hwæt dest þu to tacne þæt we ʓeseon & ʓelyfon?
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues, 31. And wel ilieue be are tacne ðe he hafð iȝiuen me.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2860. Moyses tolde hem ðat bliðe bode, And let hem sen tockenes fro gode.
c. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, 28. Þis schal be to þe þe tokne of perfite curyng when þou seez þe linne cloutez … to be drye.
1517. in Acts Parlt. Scotl. (1875), XII. 38/1. And in takin of this oure consent and oblissing hereintill We … have [affi]xt to thir presentis oure Selis.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, lxxxi. 246. He shal shew tokens that my sayenge is trewe.
1692. Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., iii. M.’s Wks. 1851, VII. 73. Money bears the Prince’s Image, not as a token of its being his, but of its being good Metal.
1715. De Foe, Fam. Instruct., I. i. (1841), I. 6. A token of his being, and of his being God.
1769. Cook, Voy. round World, I. viii. (1773), 79. These … were brought as tokens of peace and amity.
1843. Mill, Logic, I. iii. § 7. By what token could it manifest its presence?
† b. Something remaining as evidence of what formerly existed; a vestige, trace, ‘sign.’ Obs.
1555. Eden, Decades, To Rdr. (Arb.), 49. There remayneth at this daye no token of the laborious Tabernacle whiche Moises buylded.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 518. Yet wee with all our seeking could see no tokens of any such Wall. Ibid., 547. There be many tokens remaining of old antiquity.
† 4. In biblical use, An act serving to demonstrate divine power or authority; = SIGN sb. 10. Obs. or arch.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., lviii. 443. Ðone Nazareniscan Hælend ðæt wæs afandon wer … on mæʓenum & tacnum.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John x. 41. Witodlice ne worhte iohannes nan tacn [c. 1160 Hatton G. takan].
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 91. Þa warhte god feole tacne on þan folke þurh þere apostlan hondan.
c. 1200. Ormin, 14068. Þiss takenn wrohhte Jesu Crist.
1382. Wyclif, Acts ii. 22. Jhesu of Nazareth, a man prouyd of God in ȝou by vertues [gloss or myraclis], and wondris, and tokenes.
1535. Coverdale, Josh. xxiv. 17. The Lorde oure God … did soch greate tokens [1611 signs] before oure eyes.
1611. Bible, Ps. cxxxv. 9. Who sent tokens [1885 (R.V.) signs] and woonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt. Ibid., lxv. 8. They also that dwell in the vttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens [so 1885 (R.V.)].
5. A sign or presage of something to come; an omen, portent, prodigy. Obs. (exc. as included in 1).
971. Blickl. Hom., 117. Ealle þa tacno & þa forebeacno þa þe her ure Drihten ær toweard sæʓde.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 91. Ic sende min tacna ȝeond þa eorðe.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 5927. Þis was as a tokne þat to comene was.
1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 4733. Þe grete day of dome, Agayn whilk alle þir takens sal come.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), vii. 27. If it brynne, it es a gude taken.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 495/2. Tokne, of a thynge to cumme or cummynge, pronosticum.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 21. The weary Sunne … by the bright Tract of his fiery Carre, Giues token of a goodly day to morrow.
a. 1628. Sir J. Beaumont, Bosworth F., 73. Some mark his Words, as Tokens fram’d t’ express The sharp Conclusion of a sad Success.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, IV. 455. By unpropitious tokens interfered.
6. A signal given; a sign to attract attention or give notice. Now rare or Obs.
a. 1000. Prose Life Guthlac, xi. (Goodwin), 54. Comon þær þry men to þære hyðe, and þær tacn sloʓon.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 495/2. Tokne, wythe eye or wythe the hand, nutus.
c. 1450. Merlin, xviii. 292. Thei sowned theire hornes and tymbres and trumpes, and that was token that thei wolde haue socoure.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 452. As a token or watche worde, they cried that the Frenchemen were vp in harnesse.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 33/2. He gaue the token to fight vnto his souldiers.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, I. i. I gave tokens to let them know, that they might do with me what they pleased.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Fr. Wines & Pol., iii. 43. Charles lifted his finger in token of silence.
7. A sign arranged or given to indicate a person; a word or material object employed to authenticate a person, message, or communication; a mark giving security to those who possess it; a password.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVI. 147. And [Judas] tolde hem a tokne how to knowe with ihesus.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xxiii. 80 (Harl. MS.). & told to hir all the prive tokyns þat were ysaid bytwene hem two.
1561. in Exch. Rolls Scotl., XIX. 460. Delyverit to Peter Cokburne, quha come with ane takin fra George Symson, the saidis George lettres.
1716. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), V. 189. Admitting no one … but one or two, to whom I had given tokens that I might know when they were at the Door.
1827. Roberts, Voy. Centr. Amer., 270. It is customary for the King to give any person … travelling specially ‘on King’s business’ a token [by which he may be known].
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, lxxi. You bring … some note or token from my uncle.
† 8. A badge worn to indicate service or party.
1472. Coventry Leet Bk., 374. Noo Reteindres lyuerees, signes ne tokenys of clothing, nor othir wyse be taken, had nor vsed.
1516. Sel. Cas. Star Chamb. (Selden), II. 115. Sworne … that he shall not be receyued ne were any lyuerey or token of or with any lord Gentilman or … other personne foreyn.
15[?]. Battle of Balrinnes, in Maidment, Sc. Ball. (1868), I. 253. He that thought not for to blyne His mistres’ tockin taks; They kist it first, and set it syne Upone their helms and jackes.
† b. pl. Armorial bearings, heraldic arms. Obs.
1562. Leigh, Armorie, 23 b. In the first inuention of them, they were not called Armes, but Tokens.
9. Something given as an expression of affection, or to be kept as a memorial; a keepsake or present given especially at parting.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1273 (Dido). Send hir letres tokens broches and rynges.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden) 36. For a tookne to remembre hire husbond.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 306. A token from Troylus.
1722. Ramsay, Three Bonnets, III. 62. Accept o’ this love-taiken.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, v. I must present your friend with some little token.
10. Something given as the symbol and evidence of a right or privilege, upon the presentation of which the right or privilege may be exercised.
1538. Elyot, Tessera,… a token [ed. 1548 of leade, leather or other thyng] gyuen to people to receyue corne of the kinges almes. Ibid. (1548), Tesseræ nummariæ, tokens geuen to men to receiue a summe of money by.
1552. Huloet, Token geuen vnto people in fayres and markets when they bye cattell … tessera, tesserula.
b. spec. A stamped piece of lead or other metal given (originally after confession) as a voucher of fitness to be admitted to the communion: in recent times used in Scotland in connection with the Presbyterian Communion service, but now generally represented by a ‘communion card.’
1534. in Kitts, Churchw. Acc. St. Martin in the Fields, 37. Item Receued and gathred for bowssellyng tokons in the Churche xiijs vijd.
1583. Churchw. Acc. St. James,’ in Bristol past & pres. (1881), II. 37. Paid for tokens to deliver to the howselynge people at Easter, vid.
1608. (Feb. 24) Churchw. Acc. St. Martin in the Fields, 585. It is ordered That every Communicant, for the generall Communions at Easter, shall the day before Their Receiving, Repaire to the Minister, or Curate, and then and their pay his dueties and take a token, and Restore his Token, at his Comming the next day to the Communion.
1611. Cotgr., Marreau, the token of lead, etc., giuen for a remembrance, in Churches, to such as meane to receiue the Communion.
1626. in Swayne, Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896), 184. The Clarke shall deliver out a token for euerye persone that will receyve [the Sacrament].
1645. Dalgety Sess. Rec., in W. Rose, Past. Wk. in Covt. Times, vi. (1877), 135. All that wants tokens were forbidden to approoch the table.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, 27 Aug., an. 1773. Her husband was in the church distributing tokens.
1888. Barrie, Auld Licht Idylls, iii. Without a token, which was a metal lozenge, no one could take the sacrament.
1896. ‘Ian Maclaren,’ Kate Carnegie, A Moderate. The women had their tokens wrapt in snowy handkerchiefs. Ibid. Domsie went down one side and Drumsheugh the other, collecting the tokens, whose clink, clink in the silver dish was the only sound.
11. A stamped piece of metal, often having the general appearance of a coin, issued as a medium of exchange by a private person or company, who engage to take it back at its nominal value, giving goods or legal currency for it.
From the reign of Queen Elizabeth to 1813, issued by tradesmen, large employers of labor, etc., to remedy the scarcity of small coin, and sometimes in connection with the truck-shop system. Bank-tokens, silver tokens for 5s., 3s., 1s. 6d., were issued by the Bank of England in 1811; see quots. 1812, 1832.
1598–1604. Tauerne token [see TAVERN sb. 4].
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, III. iv. Buy a tokens worth of great pinnes.
1638. Sir R. Cotton, Abstr. Rec. Tower, 25. Retailers of victuals and small wares … using their owne tokens; in and about London there are above three thousand that one with another cast yearely five pound a peice of leaden tokens.
1757. Jos. Harris, Coins, 65. To supply the want of very small silver coins, a kind of Tokens or substitutes have been instituted all made of copper.
1812. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 150/1. The Silver Tokens issued by the Bank of England … Silver Tokens of 3s. each…. The weight of the 1s. 6d. token is 4 dwts. 171/2 grains.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., xiv. (ed. 3), 131. Silver tokens for various sums were issued by the Bank of England.
12. Printing. A measure or quantity of press-work; a certain number of sheets of paper (usually 250 pulls on a hand-press) passed through the press.
Token-sheet, the last sheet of each token, turned down to facilitate counting the whole number.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxv. ¶ 5. A Token … for Half a Press, viz. a Single Press-man, is generally but five Quires…: But if it be for a Whole Press, it contains Ten Quires. Ibid., xxiv. ¶ 9. Having Wet his first Token, he doubles down a … corner of the upper Sheet of it…: This Sheet is called the Token-Sheet, as being a mark … to know how many Tokens of that Heap is Wrought-off.
1867. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sc., etc., Token, in Printing [is] ten quires eighteen sheets of perfect paper, or 258 sheets. It is reckoned an hour’s work for a hand press, of ordinary work.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 707/1. It has been mentioned that 250 sheets or a token per hour, printed on one side only, represent the work of two men at the hand-press.
1896. T. L. de Vinne, Moxon’s Mech. Exerc., Printing, 427. It required much activity to pull a token in one hour…. The full ream printed on both sides is rated as four tokens.
13. In the Isle of Man: A legal summons: see quotations.
1724. Bp. Wilson, in Keble, Life, xix. (1863), 638. If he owns it he is to have seven days’ imprisonment and three penances in Church. If not he is to have a token to clear himself.
1726–31. Waldron, Descr. Isle of Man (1865), 40. When a person has a mind to commence a suit against his neighbour for debt, he has no more to do than to take out a token, which is a piece of slate marked with the governour’s name on it; and it is the same thing with an arrest in England.
14. Weaving. See quot.
1878. Barlow, Weaving, xv. 177. Several small bobbins with a little of the various colours of the weft that may be used, that is, when several kinds are employed. They are called tokens, and are raised by the Jacquard hooks attached, so as to remind the weaver which shuttle to use.
15. Phrases (in which the sense of token becomes vague). a. By the same token, by this (or that) token: (a) in the 15th c. app. On the same ground; for the same reason; in the same way; (b) since 1600 (= F. à telles enseignes que), ‘the proof of this being that’; introducing a corroborating circumstance, often weakened down to a mere associated fact that helps the memory or is recalled to mind by the main fact. arch. or dial.
1463. Paston Lett., II. 134. And to this [course] Maister Markham prayed you to agre by the same token ye mevyd hym to sette an ende be twyx you and my masters your brethern.
1463. Will of Sir H. Stafford, in Somerset Med. Wills (1901), 200. When ye come to him by the same token that I said to thabbat, Sir, I have a goode quarrell, the which is the cause of my journey, by that token he will deliver the said writinges unto you.
1491. Act 7 Hen. VII., c. 22, Preamble. Ye may speke with him by the same token that he and y commyned toguyder of matiers touching your maisters sonne.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 307. Pand. I, a token from Troylus. Cres. By the same token, you are a Bawd.
1607. R. C[arew], trans. Estienne’s World of Wonders, I. xxxviii. 305. At Aix in Germany, they were accustomed to shew his breeches, together with the virgin Maries smocke, by the same token that [orig. à telles enseignes que] the smocke was big enough for a giant.
1659–60. Pepys, Diary, 28 Feb. Up in the morning and had some red herrings to our breakfast, while my boot-heel was a-mending, by the same token the boy left the hole as big as it was before. Ibid. (1662), 13 April. I went to the Temple Church, and there heard another [sermon]: by the same tokens, a boy, being asleep, fell down a high seat to the ground.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1756), 280. Others caused large Fires to be made…; by the same Token, that two or three were pleased to set their Houses on Fire, and so effectually sweetened them by burning them down to the Ground.
1857. Dickens, in Househ. Words, XVII. 46. Max … was a staunch Roman Catholic. (By this token: Many an argument have I had with him on religion).
1907. Phyllis Dare, School to Stage, vii. 126. To receive letters from people whom they do not know, and are, by the same token, never likely to know.
b. More by token: still more, the more so. dial.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xl. Ane suldna speak ill o’ the dead—mair by token, o’ ane’s cummer and neighbour.
1850. Hawthorne, Scarlet L., xxi. Our only danger will be from drug or pill; more by token, as there is a lot of apothecary’s stuff aboard.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., i. All this Jem swore he had seen, more by token that it was the very day he had been mole-catching on Squire Cass’s land.
16. attrib. and Comb.: † token-bell, ? a signal- or alarm-bell; token coin, coinage, currency: see TOKEN-MONEY c; † token-girdle, ? a girdle mounted with amulets; token pledge = sense 7; token-proprium: see TOKEN-MONEY b; token-ring, a ring worn in token of an engagement or pledge; token-sheet, Printing (see 12); † token-teller, an indicator; token value: see TOKEN-MONEY c; † tokenworth, the worth of a token (sense 11), the very least amount.
1486. in J. R. Boyle, Hedon (1875), App. 130. Soluti pro undecim les *tokyngbelles hoc anno, iij.s. xj. d.
1897. Daily News, 30 Nov., 4/6. The shilling … is declared to be … the twentieth part of a pound. No evil results follow from this fiction, because the shilling is a *token coin and because silver is not a legal tender, except for a comparatively trivial amount.
1881. H. H. Gibbs, Double Stand., 73. It would be necessary to re-coin all our silver *token-coinage.
1883. Times, 14 July, 5. Silver … [is] in this country in the nature of a token coinage.
1893. Daily News, 27 June, 2/3. If so, the silver rupee will become *‘token’ currency.
1477. Croscombe Churchw. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.), 5. Sylver ryng gylt and a *token gyrdel of sylver.
1896. A. Austin, Eng. Darling, I. iii. Only a *token pledge to make me free Of Alfred’s camp at Athelney.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., III. 78. The Traders were not oblig’d to take one anothers Pennycoyns or such like *Token-Propriums.
1840. Mrs. Norton, Dream, etc., 296. By the true *token-ring upon thy hand.
1877. W. Jones, Finger-ring, 350. A pledge or token ring of remarkable interest.
1574. Newton, Health Mag., 29. For smellinge is the discouerer and *token teller of tast.
1898. Daily News, 30 March, 5/1. The closing of the Mints to the free coinage of silver, with the view of giving an artificial *token value to the coinage, was adopted.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, I. ii. Why? he makes no loue to her, do’s he? Lit. Not a *tokenworth that euer I saw.
