A Dictionary of Cont..

dren when tickled lose aII control of themselves).
In America an older meaning of fickle, though
merely a figurative extension of its primary
meaning, is to gratify, to excite agreeably. This
is still standard, often intensified by the addition
of to death or pink (Nellie wns tickled to death
with thaf dress you sent her!). This meaning
used to be common in English usage (But, lord
Christ! when that it remembreth me/ Upon my
youth, and on my jollity,/ It tickleth me about
mine heart’s root./ Unto this day it doth my
heart boot/ That I have had my world as in my
time-Chaucer) but is now little used in England.
Tickle may also mean to excite amusement
in (That kid’s comic; it tickles me every time I
see him).
tidbit; titbit; delicacy; dainty. Tidbit only is used
in America. The English prefer titbit but allow
tidbit. The primary sense in both countries is
that of a delicate bit of food, and the secondary
sense is that of a choice or pleasing bit of anything,
especially news. The secondary sense is
becoming the more common in America, with
the suggestion that the choice bit of news is
slightly scandalous.
In the primary sense, a tidbit is a particularly
choice or delicious morsel of food, a small
amount taken from a larger amount on account
of its excellence. A delicacy is something choice
(His table wus always furnished with delicacies).
Overuse has weakened the word and it is usually
strengthened, in common use, by rare. Dainty, as
a noun, is a stronger word than delicacy. It is a
rare delicacy and likely to be slightly curious
and exotic.
tidy in standard usage means neat, trim, orderly.
But it has different colloquial uses in England
and America. In England, especially among the
lower class (according to Partridge), it may
mean moderately satisfactory (He managed to
become a tidy fisherman) or good of its kind (A
tidy shot that, I Patter myself). In America,
especially, it means considerable (He made a
tidy fortune in cigarcts when he was stationed in
Berlin). The English know this meaning but do
not employ it as much as the Americans do.
tied to his mother’s apron strings. To say of a
child who is deeply attached to his mother or of
a grown man who remains under his mother’s
dominance that he is tied to his mother’s apron
strings is to employ a hackneyed term.
tighten one’s belt. As an expression for practicing
economy, bracing oneself to meet adversity, especially
want, to tighten one’s belt is a clicht.
tilde is the name of the diacritical mark (-)
placed over a letter, as over the letter n in Spanish,
to indicate a palatal nasal sound. Thus Spanish
&ion is pronounced like English canyon.
tllI; until. These words mean the same thing and
can be used interchangeably. Till is the older of
the two forms and should not be written as ‘til.
Both words are used in speaking of an interval
of time and are equivalent in meaning to the
more general word to. Either may be used as a
preposition with a simple object, as in wait till
tomorrow, or as a conjunction introducing a full
clause, as in a son’s u son fill he tukcs Q wife.
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timber
They cannot be used without an object and so
are not adverbs, but they are like the adverbial
conjunctions before, after, since, rather than the
pure conjunctions, such as if, unless, because.
The words following till or until show the time
up to which an action or state of affairs continues.
The verb in the principal clause may have
any tense. In the subordinate or time clause, a
present or present perfect tense verb is used in
speaking of the future, as in wait till the ruin
stops or wait till the rain has stopped. In speaking
of a past event a past perfect or a simple past
tense may be used without any difference in
meaning, as in he waited till the rain stopped
and he waited till the rain had stopped.
Till (or until) may be used to qualify a negative
statement, as in he did not learn of it till the
next day. Here we may say that what continues
is the negative condition, namely that “he did
not learn.” This explanation is not nossible with
a sentence such as it was not long till we realized.
Here the principal clause it wns not long makes a
statement which cannot be thought of as continuing.
The same is true of he wasn’t in the
room five minutes till I realized. . . . This loose
use of the word till (or until) is acceptable in the
United States but not in Great Britain, where the
word before or when is required.
tilt at windmills. As an expression, usually mildly
contemptuous, for attacking imaginary foes and
warding off nonexistent dangers,-to tilt at windmills
is a cliche. It is taken from Don Quixote’s
attack on a windmill which he thought to be a
giant.
timber; timbre. Though these words are pronounced
alike, their meanings and derivations
are quite different. In America timher retains an
older English meaning of the wood of growing
trees suitable for structural uses, or the growing
trees themselves, or wooded land (There wns
some fine timber in his woods. The company had
over two hundred thousand acres of good timber).
The cry of Timber! is American lumberjacks’
warning that a tree which is being felled
is about to fall. A timber, in England and America,
is a single beam or piece of wood fomring
or capable of forming part of a structure (They
support not only these sides, but also another
timber which upholds the roof. Though her timbers
still held together, she was no longer a ship).
Figuratively, especially in England, timber me&
personal character or quality, the stuff of which
a person is made (Men of that timber are not
satisfied with promises). In English law timber
has, or formerly had, some special and curious
limitations. It means the trees growing upon
land and forming part of the freehold inheritance,
but is commonly restricted to the oak, ash,
and elm, of the age of twenty years or more. In
some districts, by custom, other trees are included,
such as birch in Yorkshire and beech
in Buckinghamshire. Such timber could not be
taken by a tenant-for-life.
Timbre is an acoustical and phonetic expression,
common to England and America, meaning
that characteristic quality of a sound, independent
of pitch and loudness, from which its source