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Thread

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The thread of destinyi.e. that on which destiny depends. The Greeks and Romans imagined that a grave maiden called Clotho spun from her distaff the destiny of man, and as she spun one of her sisters worked out the events which were in store, and Atʹropos cut the thread at the point when death was to occur.

A St. Thomas’s thread. The tale is that St. Thomas planted Christianity in China, and then returned to Malʹabar. Here he saw a huge beam of timber floating on the sea near the coast, and the king endeavouring, by the force of men and elephants, to haul it ashore, but it would not stir. St. Thomas desired leave to build a church with it, and, his request being granted, he dragged it easily ashore with a piece of packthread. (Faria y Sousa.)

Chief of the Triple Thread. Chief Brahmin. Osoʹrius tells us that the Brahmins wore a symbolical Tessera of three threads, reaching from the right shoulder to the left. Faria says that the religion of the Brahmins proceeded from fishermen, who left the charge of the temples to their successors on the condition of their wearing some threads of their nets in remembrance of their vocation; but Osoʹrius maintains that the triple thread symbolises the Trinity.

“Terna fila ab huʹmero dexʹtero in latus sinisʹtrum gerunt, ut designent trinam in natuʹra diviʹna ratioʹnem.”

 

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Thor
Thorn
Thorn in the Flesh (A)
Thorns
Thorps-men
Thoth
Though Lost to Sight, to Memory Dear
Thousand
Thousand Years as One Day (A)
Thrall
Thread
Threadneedle Street
Three
Three Bishoprics (The)
Three-Decker (A)
Three Chapters (The)
Three Estates of the Realm
Three Holes in the Wall (The)
Three Kings Day
Three-pair Back (Living up a)
Three-quarters or 3/4