threap meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

threap

noun

/θɹiːp/

Etymology From Middle English threp (“a rebuke”), from the verb (see below). Alternative etymology derives Middle English threp, from Old English *þrēap (“contention, strife”) (attested only as Old English þrēap, in the sense of "troop, band"), ultimately from the same Germanic origin below.

Scotland An altercation, quarrel, argument.

Scotland An accusation or serious charge.

And let us see what is to be done, and hear patiently all Assertions and Threaps; let this Rain fall to the Ground, and then fall thou to Exercise.1738, James Fraser, Memoirs of the Life of the Very Reverend Mr. James Fraser, page 181:

Scotland Stubborn insistence.

Scotland A superstition or freet.

Then, (since my soul disowns the impious threap, That death is only an eternal sleep;) Then with an aching heart, I long to know, How we, my Henry, in the shades below, Shall bear the sceptre and the iron rod Of the grim Tyrant of the dark abode.1796, Thomas Muir, The Telegraph; a Consolatory Epistle:

threap

verb

Etymology From Middle English threpen (“to scold”), from Old English þrēapian (“to reprove, reprehend, punish, blame”), from Proto-West Germanic *þraupōn, from Proto-Germanic *þraupōną (“to punish”), from Proto-Germanic *þrawō (“torment, punishment”), from Proto-Germanic *þrawjaną (“to torment, injure, exhaust”), from Proto-Indo-European *trōw- (“to beat, wound, kill, torment”). Akin to Old English þrēagan (“to rebuke, punish, chastise”), þrēa (“correction, punishment”), þrōwian (“to suffer”). More at throe.

7 senses

1To contradict.
2To denounce.
3To cry out; complain; contend.
4To argue; bicker; scold; rebuke
5To affirm; to express with conviction.
6To cozen or cheat.
7To maintain obstinately against denial or contradiction…

Scotland To contradict.

I told them I went to seek him, but they threaped me and said I did not.1778, Nicholas Wilkinson, The Trial at Large of Nicholas Wilkinson:

Scotland To denounce.

O he is attended vpon moſt Babilonically, and Xerxes ſo ouercloyd not the Helleſpont with his foyſtes, gallies, and brigandines, as he mantleth the narrow ſeas with his retinue, being not much behinde in the checkroule of his Ianiſſaries and contributories, with Eagle-ſoaring Bullingbrooke, that at his remouing of houſhold into baniſhment (as father Froyſard threapes vs downe) was accompanied with 40000, men wemen and children weeping, from London to the landes end at Douer.1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 32:

Scotland To cry out; complain; contend.

Scotland To argue; bicker; scold; rebuke

It's not for a man with a woman to threap.a. 1529, John Skelton, "The Old Cloak", in Thomas Percy (editor), Percy's Relics, published 1765

Scotland To affirm; to express with conviction.

Come then, threap kindnesse yet apon thy King, Tell him that in the prison thou wilt sing His praises1664, John Fullartoun, The Turtle-Dove:
Take faith with you, and the stronger it is, it will be the more agreeable present to Christ; put a firm trust and confidence in his blood and bowels, bode and threap kindness on him1761, John Willison, Sacramental meditations and advices, page 173:

2 more examples

It is useful sometimes to threap good upon people, providing it be done soberly, prudently, and not in a flattering way, speaking nothing but truth, and withal, doing is seasonably, when the doing thereof will not foster pride nor conceit in people, but will make way, and open a door for receiving the wholesome admonitions and profitable directionsl as the apsotle doth here threap good upon these Romans, to the end his freedom in speaking to them might be the better welcomed, and less exception might be made against it: And I myself am persuaded of you, &c.1766, John Brown, An Exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, page 565:
While the young swankies on the green Took round a merry tirle: Meg Wallet wi' her pinky een Gart Lawrie's heart-strings dirle; And fouk wad threap, that she did green For what wad atar her skirle and skreigh some day.1800, Allan Ramsay, The Poems of Allan Ramsay - Volume 1, page 262:

Scotland To cozen or cheat.

Thus are men threaped out of their own persuasions.1677, Richard Gilpin, Daemonologia Sacra:

Scotland To maintain obstinately against denial or contradiction; to insist (on).

He threaped me down that it was so.
I eat some of it so prepared in an English Man's House in this City, and who would threap me down, that it was Sampire, and so named in his Country of Lincolnshire.1727, Caleb Threlkeld, Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum Alphabetice Dispositarum, page 110:

2 more examples

Thus the Power of Truth has so great Influence upon you, as to make you decline the Debate, and to yield the Argument to me, and yet your inveterate Prejudices still prevail, and have the Mastery over you, to threap what you cannot defend, but will have others do it for you, who are no way interested;1733, George Logan, The Humble and Modest Inquiry Concerning the Right and Power of Electing and Calling Ministers to vacant Churches, Finished:
Some herds, weel learn'd upo' the beuk, / Wad threap auld folk the thing misteuk;1785, Robert Burns, Epistle To William Simson Schoolmaster, Ochiltree:

Derived terms: threaper