thee

nominative thou · reflexive thyself · alternative Thee · alternative obsolete the

1. archaicliteraryobjectivesecond personsingularObjective and reflexive case of thou.First known use 8th c.

   Prince Henry: Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part? Falstaff: No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.

   1598, William Shakespeare, Henry IV part 1, act 1, scene 2, lines 49–50

   2 more examples

   Michael, this my behest have thou in charge, Take to thee from among the Cherubim Thy choice of flaming Warriours, least the Fiend

   1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

   Come, O thou Traveller unknown, / Whom still I hold, but cannot see! / My company before is gone, / And I am left alone with Thee; / With Thee all night I mean to stay, / And wrestle till the break of day.

   1742, “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown”, Charles Wesley (music)

2. archaicdialectalobjectivesecond personsingularThou.First known use 12th c.

   "What does thee want, father?" said Rachel.

   1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

   2 more examples

   [H]e immediately perceived when I was taken ill, and, after seeing Mama, said to me "I am afraid Thee art not well thyself?"

   1773, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, page 23

   "He says he's our man, Bildad," said Peleg, "he wants to ship." "Dost thee?" said Bildad, in a hollow tone

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Ship”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 84

present singular third person thees · participle present theeing · participle past theed · past theed

1. transitiveTo address (a person) using the pronoun thee.

   What! doſt thou not believe that God's Thouing and theeing was and is ſound Speech? [...] And theeing & Thouing of one ſingle Perſon was the language of Chriſt Jeſus, and the Holy Prophets and Apoſtles both under the Diſpenſations of Law and Goſpel, [...]

   1677, William Gibson, “An Answer to John Cheyney’s Pamphlet Entituled The Shibboleth of Quakerism”, in The Life of God, which is the Light and Salvation of Men, Exalted: […], [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 134

   Synonyms: thou

2. intransitiveTo use the word thee.

   The hardcore role-players will wake up one day feeling, like a dead weight on their chest, the strain of endless texting in Renaissance Faire English—yet dutifully go on theeing and thouing all the same.

   2006, Julian Dibbell, chapter 5, in Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot, New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, →ISBN

   1 more example

   You want to hear the word of God, and be challenged to go out and change the world. Instead, you are, for the fifth Sunday in a row, mewling on about purple-headed mountains (which is a bit of an imaginative stretch, since you live in East Anglia) and "theeing" and "thouing" all over the place.

   2009, David R. Keeston [pseudonym; Alan D. Jenkins], “Seeing God in the Ordinary”, in The Hitch Hikers’ Guide to the Gospel, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 39

   Synonyms: thou

present singular third person thees · participle present theeing · participle past theed · past theed · alternative the

1. UKintransitiveobsoleteTo thrive; prosper.

   Well mote thee, as well can wish your thought.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 33

plural thees

1. The letter ⟨(⟩, which stands for the th sound /ð/ in Pitman shorthand.

1. alternativenonstandardrareAlternative spelling of the.

1. honorificHonorific alternative letter-case form of thee, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.