Thing noun
Etymology
AS.
þing a thing, cause, assembly, judicial assembly; akin to
þingan to negotiate,
þingian to reconcile, conciliate, D.
ding a thing, OS.
thing thing, assembly, judicial assembly, G.
ding a thing, formerly also, an assembly, court, Icel.
þing a thing, assembly, court, Sw. & Dan.
ting; perhaps originally used of the transaction of or before a popular assembly, or the time appointed for such an assembly; cf. G.
dingen to bargain, hire, MHG.
dingen to hold court, speak before a court, negotiate, Goth.
þeihs time, perhaps akin to L.
tempus time. Cf.
Hustings, and
Temporal of time.
Definitions
- Whatever exists, or is conceived to exist, as a separate entity, whether animate or inanimate; any separable or distinguishable object of thought.
God made . . . every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind.
Gen. i. 25.
He sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt.
Gen. xiv. 23.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Keats.
- An inanimate object, in distinction from a living being; any lifeless material.
Ye meads and groves, unsonscious things!
Cowper.
- A transaction or occurrence; an event; a deed.
[And Jacob said] All these things are against me.
Gen. xlii. 36.
Which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Matt. xxi. 24.
- A portion or part; something.
Wieked men who understand any thing of wisdom.
Tillotson.
- A diminutive or slighted object; any object viewed as merely existing; -- often used in pity or contempt.
See, sons, what things you are!
Shak.
The poor thing sighed, and . . . turned from me.
Addison.
I'll be this abject thing no more.
Granville.
I have a thing in prose.
Swift.
- pl. Clothes; furniture; appurtenances; luggage; as, to pack or store one's things. Colloq.
✍ Formerly, the singular was sometimes used in a plural or collective sense.
And them she gave her moebles and her thing.
Chaucer.
✍ Thing was used in a very general sense in Old English, and is still heard colloquially where some more definite term would be used in careful composition.
In the garden [he] walketh to and fro,
And hath his things [i. e., prayers, devotions] said full courteously.
Chaucer.
Hearkening his minstrels their things play.
Chaucer.
- (Law) Whatever may be possessed or owned; a property; -- distinguished from person.
- In Scandinavian countries, a legislative or judicial assembly.
Longfellow.