Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Tithe

Tithe

,
Noun.
[OE.
tithe
,
tethe
, properly an adj., tenth, AS.
teó[GREEK]a
the tenth; akin to
tién
,
t[GREEK]n
,
tēn
, ten, G.
zehnte
, adj., tenth, n., a tithe, Icel.
tīund
the tenth; tithe, Goth.
taíhunda
tenth. See
Ten
, and cf.
Tenth
,
Teind
.]
1.
A tenth; the tenth part of anything; specifically, the tenthpart of the increase arising from the profits of land and stock, allotted to the clergy for their support, as in England, or devoted to religious or charitable uses. Almost all the tithes of England and Wales are commuted by law into rent charges.
The
tithes
of the corn, the new wine, and the oil.
Neh. xiii. 5.
Tithes are called personal when accuring from labor, art, trade, and navigation; predial, when issuing from the earth, as hay, wood, and fruit; and mixed, when accuring from beaste fed from the ground.
Blackstone.
2.
Hence, a small part or proportion.
Bacon.
Great tithes
,
tithes of corn, hay, and wood.
Mixed tithes
,
tithes of wool, milk, pigs, etc.
Small tithes
,
personal and mixed tithes.
Tithe commissioner
,
one of a board of officers appointed by the government for arranging propositions for commuting, or compounding for, tithes.
[Eng.]
Simmonds.

Tithe

,
Adj.
Tenth.
[Obs.]
Every
tithe
soul, ’mongst many thousand.
Shakespeare

Tithe

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Tithed
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Tithing
.]
[As.
teó[GREEK]ian
.]
To levy a tenth part on; to tax to the amount of a tenth; to pay tithes on.
Ye
tithe
mint and rue.
Luke xi. 42.

Tithe

,
Verb.
I.
Tp pay tithes.
[R.]
Tusser.

Webster 1828 Edition


Tithe

TITHE

,
Noun.
The tenth part of any thing; but appropriately, the tenth part of the increase annually arising from the profits of land and stock, allotted to the clergy for their support. Tithes are personal, predial, or mixed; personal, when accruing from labor, art, trade and navigation; predial, when issuing from the earth, as hay, wood and fruit; and mixed, when accruing from beasts, which are fed from the ground.

TITHE

,
Verb.
T.
To levy a tenth part on; to tax to the amount of a tenth.
When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase. Deut. 26.
Ye tithe mint and rue. Luke 11.

TITHE

,
Verb.
I.
To pay tithes.

Definition 2024


tithe

tithe

English

Noun

tithe (plural tithes)

  1. (archaic) A tenth.
  2. The tenth part of the increase arising from the profits of land and stock, allotted to the clergy for their support, as in England, or devoted to religious or charitable uses. Almost all the tithes of England and Wales are commuted by law into rent charges. Concept originates in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).
  3. A contribution to one's religious community or congregation of worship.
  4. A small part or proportion.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)
Synonyms
Derived terms
See also
Translations

Adjective

tithe (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) Tenth.
    • Shakespeare
      Every tithe soul, 'mongst many thousand.

Verb

tithe (third-person singular simple present tithes, present participle tithing, simple past and past participle tithed)

  1. To give one-tenth or a tithe of something, particularly:
    1. (transitive) To pay something as a tithe.
      • 854, "Grant by Adulf" in Cartularium Saxonicum, Book ii, 79:
        He teoðode gynd eall his cyne rice ðone teoðan del ealra his landa.
      • 1967 August 6, Observer, 4:
        A reply sent to a young member by the sect's letter-answering department was more precise: ‘A person working for wages is to tithe one-tenth of the total amount of his wages before income tax, national health, or other deductions are removed.’
    2. (transitive) To pay a tithe upon something.
      • c. 897, King Alfred translating St Gregory, Pastoral Care, Chapter lvii:
        ...ge tiogoðiað eowre mintan & eowerne dile & eowerne kymen.
      • 1562, F.J. Furnivall, ed., Child-marriages... in the Diocese of Chester A.D. 1561-6, p. 138:
        The maner of tiething pigge and gose is, yf one have vijth, to pay one.
      • 1901, H.G. Dakyns translating Xenophon's Anabasis, Book V, Chapter iii, §9:
        Here with the sacred money [Xenophon] built an altar and a temple, and ever after, year by year, tithed the fruits of the land in their season and did sacrifice to the goddess.
    3. (intransitive) To pay a tithe; to pay a 10% tax
      • a. 1200, Trinity College Homilies, 215:
        Þe prest þe meneȝeð rihtliche teðien.
      • 1942 September, Esquire, p. 174:
        They went to the Six Hickories church—tithed—and behaved themselves.
    4. (intransitive, figuratively) To pay or offer as a levy in the manner of a tithe or religious tax.
      • 1630, Anonymous translation of Giovanni Botero, anonymously translated as Relations of the Most Famous Kingdomes and Common-wealths, p. 510:
        These slaves are either the sonnes of Christians, tithed in their childhoods, Captives taken in the warres, or Renegadoes.
      • 1976 June 20, Billings Gazzette, C1:
        Former Southern officers prospered and tithed up to 50 percent for Civil War II, which never came.
  2. To take one-tenth or a tithe of something, particularly:
    1. (transitive) To impose a tithe upon someone or something.
      • 1382, Wycliffite Bible, Hebrews 7:9:
        Leeuy, that took tithis, is tithid.
      • 1843, Frederick Marryat, Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet, in California, Sonora, & Western Texas, Vol. III, Ch. xi, p. 212:
        The cost... has been defrayed by tithing the whole Mormon Church. Those who reside at Nauvoo... have been obliged to work every tenth day in quarrying stone.
    2. (transitive) To spare only every tenth person, killing the rest (usually in relation to the sacking of the episcopal seat at Canterbury by the pagan Danes in 1011).
    3. (transitive) To enforce or collect a tithe upon someone or something.
      • 1591, The Troublesome Raigne of Iohn King of England, i, G:
        The Monkes the Priors and holy cloystred Nunnes,
        Are all in health,...
        Till I had tythde and tolde their holy hoords.
      • a. 1642,, Henry Best, published in 1984 as The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, p. 26:
        When the parson or Procter commeth to tythe his wooll.
    4. (transitive, obsolete) To decimate: to kill every tenth person, usually as a military punishment.
      • 1609, A. Marcellinus, translated by Philemon Holland as The Romane Historie, D, iii:
        The Thebane Legion... was first tithed, that is, every tenth man thereof was executed.
      • 1610, William Camden, translated by Philemon Holland as A Chorographicall Description of... England, Scotland, and Ireland, i, 705:
        Keeping aliue... two principall persons, that they might be tithed with the soldiors... Every tenth man of the Normans they chose out by lot, to be executed.
    5. (intransitive) To enforce or collect a tithe.
      • 1822, Thomas Love Peacock, Maid Marian, Ch. vi, p. 210:
        Those who tithe and toll upon them for their spiritual and temporal benefit.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To compose the tenth part of something.
    • 1586, William Warner, Albions England: A Continued Historie, i, v, 15:
      Her sorrowes did not tith her ioy.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Old English tíð (as an adjective, via tigþa[1] and, as a verb, via tigþian),[2] from unattested *tigð, from proposed Proto-Germanic *tigiþā but unknown outside of English.[3]

Noun

tithe (plural tithes)

  1. (obsolete) A boon (a grant or concession).

Adjective

tithe (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Receiving a concession or grant; successful in prayer or request.

Verb

tithe (third-person singular simple present tithes, present participle tithing, simple past and past participle tithed)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To grant, concede.
Derived terms

References

  1. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "† tithe, adj.2" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1912.
  2. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "† tithe, v.1" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1912.
  3. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "† tithe, n.2" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1912.

Irish

Pronunciation

Noun

tithe m pl

  1. plural of teach (house)
  2. housing

Synonyms

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
tithe thithe dtithe
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.