thingumbob (thingumbob)

[Also dial. thingumebob; A lonely grey house, with a thingumebob at the top; a Bulwer, Eugene Aram, i. 2. servatory they call it. A polyp would be a conceptual thinker if a feeling of "Hollo! thingumbob again!" ever flitted through its mind. W. James , Prin. of Psychology, I. 463. To think so base a thought. Shak., M. of V., ii. 7. 50. Again thought he, Since heretofore I have made a con Bunyan , Pilgrim's Progre , ii. "What a noble heart that man has," she thought . Thackeray, Vanity Fair, lxvi. 2. To form a mental image of; imagine: often equivalent to recollect; recall; consider. "Thenke," quod the lewe, "what I thee dede When thou was with vs in that stede." King Horn (E. E. T. S.), p. 92. Ther nas no man so wys that koude thenche So gay a popelote, or swich a wenche. Chaucer, Miller's Tale, 1. 67. Vlfyn that is wise and a trewe knyght hath ordeyned all this pees, and the beste or den a unce that eny can thynke. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), i. 80. If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind. Pope , E ay on Man, iv. 281. 3. To cognize; apprehend; grasp intellectually. The animal perceives no "object," no "causal nexus," not being able to form such abstractions from his feelings. If man is gifted with another power, and thinks an "object" or a "causal nexus," it is because he can detach and fix in signs, rendering explicit what is implicit in feeling. G. II. Lewes , Probs. of Life and Mind, II. iii. § 5. We think the ocean as a whole by multiplying mentally the impre ion we get at any moment when at sea. W. James , Prin. of Psychology, II. 203. 4. To judge problematically; form a conception of (something) in the mind and recognize it as po ibly true, without decidedly a enting to it as such. Charity.. think eth no evil [taketh not account of evil, R. V.]. 1 Cor. xiii. 5. He sleeps and thinks no harme. Milton , Church-Government, ii., Con. 5. To purpose; intend; mean; contemplate; have in mind (to do): usually followed by an infinitive clause as the object. When he seid all that he thought to seye, Ther nedid noo disple a sur to be sought. Generydes (E. E. T. S.), 1. 204. No hurte to me they thinke . Taming of a Shrew (Child's Ballads, VIII. 184). I think not to rest till I come thither. I. Walton , Complete Angler, p. 20. Many of the colonists at Boston thought to remove, or did remove, to England. Emerson, Hist. Discourse at Concord. 6. To hold as a belief or opinion; opine; be no value or importance; a mere nothing; a cipher. Man is like a thing of nought; his time pa eth away like a shadow. Book of Common Prayer, Psalter, Ps. cxliv. 4. Ham. The King is a thing Guil. A thing, my lord! Ham. Of nothing . Shak ., Hamlet, iv. 2. 30. Things in action, legal rights to things not in the po e ion of the claimant. To do the handsome thing by, to treat with munificence or generosity. [Many analogous phrases are formed by the substitution of other adjectives for handsome: as, to do the friendly, proper, square, or right thing by a person.] [Colloq.] You see I'm doing the handsome thing by you, because my father knows yours. T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, i. 5. To know a thing or two, to be experienced or knowing; hence, to be shrewd or sharp-witted. [Colloq.] My cousin is a sharp blade, but I think I have shown him that we in Virginia know a thing or two . a capricious extension of thing, as if thing1 + -um (a quasi-L. term.) + y2. Cf. thing umbob.] Same as thingumbob. What a bloated aristocrat Thingamy has become since he got his place! Thackeray, Character Sketches (Misc., V. 343). "And so," says Xanthias, in the slovenly jargon of go ip, "the thingummy is to come off?" "Yes," replies Aeacus in the same style, "directly; and this is where the thingumbobs are to work.' Cla ical Rev., III. 259.