thrave

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪv

Etymology 1

From Middle English thraven, from Old English þrafian (“to press; urge; compel; rebuke; argue; contend”), from Proto-West Germanic *þrabōn, from Proto-Germanic *þrabōną (“to press; drive”), from Proto-Indo-European *trep- (“to scamper; trample; quake; tread”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian troawje, droawje (“to trot”), West Frisian drave (“to trot”), Dutch draven (“to lope; trot”), German traben (“to trot”), Swedish trava (“to trot”), Icelandic þrefa (“to wrangle; dispute”).

Verb

thrave (third-person singular simple present thraves, present participle thraving, simple past and past participle thraved)

1. (transitive, UK, dialectal) To urge; compel; importune.

Related terms

• thraft

Etymology 2

From Middle English thrave, threve, thrafe, from Old Norse þrefi (“a bunch or handful of sheaves”), related to Old Norse þrifa (“to grasp”). Cognate with Swedish trave, Danish trave.

Alternative forms

• threave (obsolete), threve (obsolete)

Noun

thrave (plural thraves)

1. (UK, dialect) A sheaf; a handful (of crops).
2. (UK, dialect, obsolete) A specified number (twenty-six, twenty-four, twelve, etc., depending on the place) of sheaves of a crop (wheat, oats, corn etc.); compare shock and stook, also a certain number of sheaves.
   • 1785, Robert Burns, To a Mouse:

     A daimen icker in a thrave / 'S a sma' request;

3. (UK, dialect, obsolete) Two dozen, or similar indefinite number; a bunch; a throng.
   • c. 16th century, Lansdowne manuscript

     The worst of a thrave.

   • 1597, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in Virgidemiarum, Sixe Bookes. First Three Bookes, of Tooth-lesse Satyrs. […], London: […] Thomas Creede, for Robert Dexter, →OCLC:

     He sends forth thraves of ballads to the sale.

References

• “thrave”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• raveth