Chapter Tear Handkerchief to Temper of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Tear Handkerchief to Temper

Tear Handkerchief (The). A handkerchief blessed by the priest and given, in the Tyrol, to a bride, to dry her tears. At death, this handkerchief is laid in her coffin over the face of the deceased.

Teaspoon (A). 5,000. (See Spoon. )

Teazle (Lady). A lively, innocent country maiden, married to Sir Peter, who is old enough to be her father. Planted in the hotbed of London gaiety, she formed a liaison with Joseph Surface, but, being saved from disgrace, repented and reformed. (Sheridan: School for Scandal.) (See Townly. )

Teazle (Sir Peter). A man who had remained a bachelor till he had become old, when he married a girl from the country, who proved extravagant, fond of pleasure, selfish, and vain. Sir Peter was always gibing his wife for her inferior rank, teasing her about her manner of life, and yet secretly liking what she did, and feeling proud of her. (Sheridan: School for Scandal.)

Teck (A). A detective. Every suspicious man is a “teck” in the eyes of a thief. Of course, the word is a contraction of [de]tec[tive].

Teeth
   From the teeth outwards. Merely talk; without real significance.

“Much of the ... talk about General Gordon lately was only from the teeth outwards.”- The Daily News, 1886.

   To set one's teeth on edge. (See Edge.)
   He has cut his eye-teeth. He is “up to snuff;” he has “his weather-eye open.” The eye-teeth are cut late-
   Months.
   First set - 5 to 8, the four central inoisors.
   7 ” 10 ” lateral incisors.
   12 ” 16 ” anterior molars.
   14 ” 20 ” the eye-teeth.
   Years.
   Second set - 5 to 6, the anterior molars.
   7 ” 8 ” incisors.
   9 ” 10 ” bicuspids.
   11 ” 12 ” eye-teeth.
   In spite of his teeth. In opposition to his settled purpose or resolution. Holinshed tells us of a Bristol Jew, who suffered a tooth to be drawn daily for seven days before he would submit to the extortion of King John. (See Jew's Eye.)

“In despite of the teeth of all the rhyme and reason.”- Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 4.

   To cast into one's teeth. To utter reproaches.

“All his faults observed,
Set in a note-book, learned, and conned by rote,
To cast into my teeth.”
Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, iv. 3.

   The skin of his teeth. (See Skin.)
   Teeth. The people of Ceylon and Malabar used to worship the teeth of elephants and monkeys. The Siamese once offered to a Portuguese 700,000 ducats to redeem a monkey's tooth.
   Wolf's tooth. An amulet worn by children to charm away fear.

Teeth are Drawn (His). His power of doing mischief is taken from him. The phrase comes from the fable of The Lion in Love, who consented to have his teeth drawn and claws cut, in order that a fair damsel might marry him. When the teeth were drawn and claws cut off, the father of the maid fell on the lion and slew him.

Teeth of the Wind (In the). With the wind dead against us, with the wind blowing in or against our teeth.

“To strive with all the tempest in my teeth.”
Pope.

Teetotal Those who sign the abstinence pledge are entered with O. P. (old pledge) after their name. Those who pledge themselves to abstain wholly from alcoholic drinks have a T (total) after their name. Hence, T = total abstainer.
    The tale about Dick Turner, a plasterer or fish-hawker at Preston, in Lancashire, who stammered forth, “Ill have nowt to do with the moderation botheration pledge; I'll be reet down t- total, that or nowt,” is not to be relied on.
   It is said that Turner's tombstone contains this inscription: “Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Richard Turner, author of the word Teetotal as applied to abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, who departed this life on the 27th day of October, 1846, aged 56 years.”

Teetotum (A). A working-man's club in which all intoxicants are prohibited.

“You can generally depend upon getting your money's worth if you go to a teetotum.”- Stephen Remarx, chap. v.