Chapter Tonna to Torquato of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Tonna to Torquato

Tonna (Mrs.), Charlotte Elizabeth (1792–1846).

Tonto (Don Cherubin), canon of Toledo, the weakest mortal in the world, though, by his smirking air, you would fancy him a wit. When he hears a delicate performance read, he listens with such attention as seems full of intelligence, but all the while he understands nothing of the matter.—Lesage: Gil Blas, v. 12 (1724).

Tonton, the smallest dog that ever existed. When the three princes of a certain king were sent to procure the tiniest dog they could find as a present to their aged father, the White Cat gave the youngest of them a dog so small that it was packed in wadding in a common acorn shell.

As soon as the acorn was opened, they all saw a little dog laid in cotton, and so small it might jump through a finger-ring without touching it.…It was a mixture of several colours; its ears and long hair reached to the ground. The prince set it on the ground, and forthwith the tiny creature began to dance a saraband with castanets.—Comtesse D’Aulnoy: Fairy Tales (“The White Cat,” 1682).

Tony Lumpkin, a young booby, fond of practical jokes and low company. He was the son of Mrs. Hardcastle by her first husband.—Goldsmith: She Stoops to Conquer (1773).

Toodle, engine-fireman, an honest fellow, very proud of his wife Polly and her family.

Polly Toodle, known by the name of Richards, wife of the stoker. Polly was an apple-faced woman, and was mother of a large apple-faced family. This jolly, homely, kind-hearted matron was selected as the nurse of Paul Dombey, and soon became devotedly attached to Paul and his sister Florence.

Robin Toodle, known as “The Biler” or “Rob the Grinder,” eldest son of Mrs. Toodle wet-nurse of Paul Dombey. Mr. Dombey gets Robin into an institution called “The Charitable Grinders,” where the worst part of the boy’s character is freely developed. Robin becomes a sneak, and enters the service of James Carker, manager of the firm of Dombey and Son. On the death of Carker, Robin enters the service of Miss Lucretia Tox.—Dickens: Dombey and Son (1846).

Tooley Street, London; a corruption of St. Olaf. Similarly, Taudry is a corruption of St. Audry, St. Tibs of St. Ubes, and St. Telders of Ethelred.

Toom Tabard [“empty jacket”], a nickname given to John Balliol, because his appointment to the sovereignty of Scotland was an empty name. He had the royal robe or jacket, but nothing else (1259, 1292–1314).

Tooth (A Wolf’s). At one time a wolf’s tooth was worn as an amulet by children to charm away fear.

Tooth of Knowledge (Finn’s). (See Knowledge, p. 582.)

Tooth Worshipped (A.) The people of Ceylon worship the tooth of an elephant; those of Malabar the tooth of a monkey. The Siamese once offered a Portuguese 700,000 ducats for the redemption of a monkey’s tooth.

Tooth-picks. The Romans used tooth-picks made of mastic wood in preference to quills; hence Rabelais says that prince Gargantua “picked his teeth with mastic tooth-pickers” (s’escuroit les dents avecques ung trou de lentisce), bk. i. 23.

Lentiscum melius; sed si tibi frondea cuspis
Defuerit dentes, penna, levare potes.
   —Martial: Epigrams, xx. 24.

Toots (Mr.), an innocent, warm-hearted young man, just burst from the bonds of Dr. Blimber’s school, and deeply in love with Florence Dombey. He is famous for blushing, refusing what he longs to accept, and for saying, “Oh, it is of no consequence.” Being very nervous, he never appears to advantage, but in the main “there are few better fellows in the world.”