Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Muscular power or strength.
  • noun A well-developed sinew or muscle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bondman; a slave.
  • Bond; servile.
  • To oppress; enslave.
  • noun Custom; habit; manner; usually in the plural, customs; habits; manners; morals; qualities; moral traits; conditions.
  • noun A muscle; a sinew: used generally in the plural.
  • noun An old or provincial or artificial preterit of thaw.
  • noun A cucking-stool; perhaps, also, a form of pillory.

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

  • noun obsolete Manner; custom; habit; form of behavior; qualities of mind; disposition; specifically, good qualities; virtues.
  • noun Muscle or strength; nerve; brawn; sinew.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A bondman; a slave.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To oppress; enslave.
  • noun Muscle or sinew.
  • noun A good quality or habit; virtue.
  • noun An attractive physical attribute, especially muscle; mental or moral vigour.
  • verb Instruct in morals or values; chastise.
  • adjective obsolete Bond; servile.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, individual habit, virtue, strength (sense influenced by sinew), from Old English thēaw, a custom, habit.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English thew, theaw (often in plural thewes), from Old English þēaw ("usage, custom, general practise of a community, mode of conduct, manner, practise, way, behaviour"), from Proto-Germanic *þawwaz (“custom, habit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tāu-, *(s)te- (“to stand, place”). Cognate with Old Frisian thāw, Old Saxon thau ("custom"), Old High German *gathau, kathau ("discipline").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English thewen, from Old English þēowan, þȳwan ("to press, impress, force, press on, urge on, drive, press with a weapon, thrust, pierce, stab, threaten, rebuke, subjugate, crush, push, oppress, check"), from Proto-Germanic *þewjanan (“to enslave, oppress”), from Proto-Indo-European *tekw- (“to run, flow”). Cognate with Middle Dutch douwen, Middle Low German duwen, Middle High German diuhen, dūhen, diuwen ("to oppress").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English thew, from Old English þēow ("servile, not free, bond"), from Proto-Germanic *þewaz, *þegwaz (“subject, servile”), from Proto-Indo-European *tekwos (“runner”), from Proto-Indo-European *tekw- (“to run, flow”). Cognate with Old High German dio ("unfree").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English thew, theow, from Old English þēow, þēo ("servant, slave"), from Proto-Germanic *þewaz, *þegwaz (“servant”), from Proto-Indo-European *tekwos (“runner”), from Proto-Indo-European *tekw- (“to run, flow”). Cognate with Old High German diu ("servant"), Gothic  (þius, "bondman, slave, servant"), Dutch dienen ("to serve"), German dienen ("to serve"), Old English þegn ("servant, minister, vassal"). See thegn, thane.

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Examples

Comments

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  • ...the delicate, shy, pale Flora

    (who strains and frets under sleek black thew)...

    - Peter Reading, Dark Continent, from Diplopic, 1983

    June 29, 2008

  • Your favorite list? Gosh!

    *feels very honored*

    *also provides a link*

    June 30, 2008

  • "Greek schemers seek egress en ténèbres, then enter the melee — the welter where berserk tempers seethe whenever men's mettle, then men's fettle, gets tested; there, the Greek berserkers sever men's thews, then shred men's flesh."

    Eunoia by Christian Bök (upgraded edition), p 44

    May 21, 2010

  •                                       … for Romans now

    Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors…

    – Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, scene iii

    June 8, 2015