Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A twist; a wrench.
  • A Scotch form of throw for throe.
  • noun A Scotch form of throw.
  • To twist; hence, to wrench; wrest; distort.
  • To cross; thwart; frustrate.
  • To twist or writhe, as in agony; wriggle; squirm.
  • To cast; warp.
  • To be perverse or obstinate; act perversely.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • Scot. See throse.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • That corpses MIGHT begin to "thraw," if carelessly watched, was a prevalent superstition.

    A Collection of Ballads Andrew Lang 1878

  • One Scotchman was claiming that the peasantry of Scotland pronounced it three, his adversaries claimed that they didn't -- that they pronounced it 'thraw'.

    Following the Equator Mark Twain 1872

  • One Scotchman was claiming that the peasantry of Scotland pronounced it three, his adversaries claimed that they didn't -- that they pronounced it 'thraw'.

    Following the Equator — Part 1 Mark Twain 1872

  • And, then to compound things, we have this vote where most of the Democrats running for president ended up looking like they were in thraw to their netroot fanatics.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » The Reaction to the MoveOn.Org “General Betray Us” Ad: 2007

  • I doubt not a justice-loving public will have remarked, ere this, that I have thus far shown a criminal remissness in pursuing, catching, and bringing to condign punishment the would-be assassin of Mr. Robert Moore: here was a fine opening to lead my willing readers a dance, at once decorous and exciting: a dance of law and gospel, of the dungeon, the dock, and the 'dead-thraw.'

    Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte 2004

  • “And what will ye do, if I carena to thraw the keys, or draw the bolts, or open the grate to sic a clamjamfrie?” said the old dame, scoffingly.

    The Black Dwarf 2004

  • Ingoldsby, her cousin-german by the mother's side; but the Baron was too far gone in the dead-thraw to recognize either.

    Half-Hours with Great Story-Tellers Various

  • But I'm not the woman to see ye disappointed, and I think if ye'll try me, I'll thraw ye myself. '

    Ben Comee A Tale of Rogers's Rangers, 1758-59

  • The night afore ye cam 'she yoked himsel' on his jyling the lassie, though she's the last that wad thraw him.

    Doom Castle Neil Munro

  • They likewise carefully watch the corpse by night and day till the time of interment, and conceive that “the deil tinkles at the lykewake” of those who felt in their dead-thraw the agonies and terrors of remorse.

    Notes 1917

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