Definitions

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

  • noun A thole pin.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In architecture: Same as tholus; sometimes, a vaulted niche, or recess in a temple, where votive offerings were suspended.
  • noun The scutcheon or knot at the center of a timber vault.
  • noun A pin inserted in the gunwale of a boat, or in a similar position, to act as a fulcrum for the oar in rowing.
  • noun The pin or handle of a scythe-snath.
  • noun A cart-pin.
  • noun Patience; endurance; tolerance.
  • To bear; undergo; sustain; put up with; stand.
  • To experience; feel; suffer.
  • To tolerate; permit; allow.
  • To admit of; afford.
  • To give freely.
  • To endure grief, pain, misfortune, etc.; suffer.
  • To be patient or tolerant; bear (with); be indulgent.
  • To wait; stay; remain.

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

  • transitive verb Obs. or Scot. To bear; to endure; to undergo.
  • intransitive verb Prov. Eng. & Scot. To wait.
  • noun A wooden or metal pin, set in the gunwale of a boat, to serve as a fulcrum for the oar in rowing.
  • noun The pin, or handle, of a scythe snath.
  • noun Same as Thole.

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

  • noun a pin in the side of a boat which acts as a fulcrum for the oars
  • verb intransitive To suffer.
  • verb transitive, Northern England To endure, to tolerate, to put up with.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a holder attached to the gunwale of a boat that holds the oar in place and acts as a fulcrum for rowing

Etymologies

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

[Middle English tholle, from Old English thol; see teuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English þol ("thole, oar-pin"), from Proto-Germanic *þullaz, *þullō (“thole, beam”), from Proto-Indo-European *tūl-, *twel- (“sphere, bush”). Cognate with Dutch dol ("thole"), German Dolle ("oar-lock, thole"), Danish toll ("thole"). Extra-Germanic cognates include Albanian thel ("a big nail, a clapper").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English tholen, tholien, from Old English þolian ("to thole, endure, suffer, undergo"), from Proto-Germanic *þulēnan, *þuljanan (“to suffer”), from Proto-Indo-European *tol-, *tel-, *tel(ə)- (“to bear, support, suffer”). Cognate with Middle Low German dōlen ("to endure"), Middle High German doln ("to bear, suffer, allow"), Danish tåle ("to tolerate"), Norwegian tola ("to tolerate"), Swedish tåla ("to tolerate"), Latin tollō ("to cancel, lift off, remove"), Latin tolerō ("to bear, endure") and Albanian ndal ("to stop, hold") from dal ("exit, leave; fig. to manage, succeed, endure").

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Examples

  • So that, although we may with fome degree of propriety adopt the idea of thole hif - tarian«, who tells us, that the king was taller than the genera -

    The Monthly Review 1776

  • … this is good … i like the idea of thole starting the season in Triple-A, where he can work on catching big-league quality pitching, under the tutelage of Chris Coste … the question now is, what happens to Omir Santos … will he or Shawn Riggans end up being traded … and, if so, to whom and for what …

    MetsBlog.com Matthew Cerrone 2010

  • Finally. gaustad sh! thole, meaning the entire city of Buffalo, not your little neighborhood.

    Buffalo Rising 2008

  • UN International Sh! thole of the year, 40 years running.

    Cheeseburger Gothic » Not so lazy Sunday 2010

  • Shut your lying sh! thole and work with our president!

    DeMint blasts Obama's 'false promises' 2009

  • In 100 years, the entire territory of Jew-Free Palestine will be the same kind of s – thole that Gaza is today.

    Matthew Yglesias » Time Machine 2009

  • After the federal Tory cabinet minister swore at Charlottetown airport security personnel and said they’d cause her to be “stuck in this s–thole,” an anonymous resident got revenge for the city by publicizing her outburst in a letter, forcing her to apologize.

    Newsmakers: Feuds - Newsmakers - Macleans.ca 2010

  • Then away they rowed, so hard and fast, that well-nigh the half of the keel slipped away from the ship, and so hard they laid on to the oars that thole and gunwale brake.

    The Story of the Volsungs 2008

  • "Ho! some of you catch up chance spars, break up the benches, or snatch the oar-blade from the thole, and beat out the brains of these our foreign foes."

    Helen 2008

  • "Ho! some of you catch up chance spars, break up the benches, or snatch the oar-blade from the thole, and beat out the brains of these our foreign foes."

    Helen 2008

Comments

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  • In Nova Scotia the wooden pins used as oarlocks in dories and mackerel flats are set into the tholes and are pronounced "tullpins".

    February 16, 2011

  • "...those Stalinist crimes imputed to you by your most ardent admirers and which the intelligently decent have NEVER been able to thole."

    - Alasdair gray, 1982, Janine.

    November 26, 2011