thous

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of thou.

   The bearing seat had worn by only two thous, well within the shop's tolerance.

   The inspector rejected any part more than five thous out of tolerance.

   Note

   Workshop English measures fine tolerances in thous, each one a thousandth of an inch, or 25.4 micrometers, so a shaft ground to within five thous is within five thousandths of an inch. The singular thou is also slang for a thousand of a currency, dollars or pounds; talk of shafts and bearings, or of prices, shows which is meant.

2. 2
   SayTHOWZ/ðaʊz/

   noun

   Plural of thou, used for instances of the pronoun thou, especially as a mark of archaic, formal, or reverent speech.

   The new translation strips out the thous and thees, giving the psalms a plainer modern voice.

   Even in casual conversation, the old preacher slipped into thous whenever he quoted scripture.

   Note

   This plural travels in a pair with thees, and the pair stands for a whole manner of speaking: archaic, solemn or reverent. In Philip LaZebnik's "Devil's Due" for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1991), one character is told not to talk like an ancient prophet, with thees and thous. It is sometimes written thou's, the apostrophe marking that a word is being counted.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of thou.

   In the scene, the duke pointedly thous the messenger, a calculated insult to a man of his rank.

   Whenever he reads the old poems aloud, he thous and thees like a stage actor.

   Note

   The pronoun itself became a verb, and the choice it names carried weight: to thou someone could be familiar or openly contemptuous, as when a duke thous a messenger to put him in his place. Without an object it means simply using the word: he thous and thees. The same spelling is also two different plural nouns, the machinist's measure and the old pronoun as a word.

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