thole
/θəʊl//θoʊl/
thole verb: to suffer.
Verb
thole (third-person singular simple present tholes, present participle tholing, simple past and past participle tholed)
- To suffer.
- Seventy beds keeps he there teeming mothers are wont that they lie for to thole and bring forth bairns hale so God’s angel to Mary quoth.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 368
- That remark of Edith Van Tromp's, to the effect that the illusions would all be swept away, had its confirmation before we had tholed through the first week of our island captivity.1922, Francis Lynde, Pirates' Hope, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 115
- To endure, to put up with, to tolerate.
- Nor was long Poſſeſſion in molendino regio, of receiving Multures for all Corns of a Barony promiſcuouſly without exception of Teind, found to bring the Teind under a Thirlage, Except ſuch as tholed Fire and Water there.1705, William Forbes, “Concerning the Burdens that Tiends are Liable to”, in A Treatise of Church-lands & Tithes, Edinburgh: Printed by the heirs and successors of Andrew Anderson [i.e., James...
- Before long Ailie was silent and white, while her mother rimed on about men and their ways. And then she could thole it no longer, but must go out and walk by the burn to cool her hot brow and calm her thoughts, while the witch indoors laughed to herself at her devices.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
Noun (1)
thole (plural tholes)
- A pin in the side of a boat which acts as a fulcrum for the oars.
- Swiftly they glided away, like the shade of a cloud on the prairie. / After the sound of their oars on the tholes had died in the distance, / As from a magic trance the sleepers awoke, [...]1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, chapter II, in Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, part II, page 101, lines 841–842
- The oars squeaked against the tholes, the blades dipped with a steady beat, and the sun beat down: the boat crept across the sea.1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise (Aubrey–Maturin series; 3), London: Collins, →ISBN
- A pin, or handle, of the snath (shaft) of a scythe.
- The nature of my invention consists in curving forward that portion of the scythe snath below the right nib or thole, to such an extent as to form an obtuse angle between the scythe and snath at the point where they are joined, and also in such a manner as to equalize the labor between the right...1850 May, “[List of American Patents which issued in November, 1849, with Exemplifications by Charles M. Keller, late Chief Examiner of Patents in the U.S. Patent Office.] 38. For an Improvement in...
- For my own stature, which is five feet eight inches, I find that two feet six inches from the heel to the lower thole, just right, and the tholes should be eighteen inches apart. For smooth land, the scythe should be three feet nine inches' shorter for lodged clover and rough ground. The point...1870 July 9, Phinehas Field, “Mowing, and Things”, in Simon Brown, Stilman Fletcher, editors, The New England Farmer: Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, and Kindred Arts, volume IV (New Series)...
- Synonyms:
- nib
Noun (2)
thole (plural tholes)
- A cupola, a dome, a rotunda; a tholus.
- Philostratus relates that the king's house in Babylon had a roof of brass, which shone like lightning, and that in that house there was a chamber, whose ceiling was a thole (that is, a concave hemisphere) made in imitation of some system of the heaven, and with sapphire-coloured stones, […] and...1828, [Algernon Herbert], “Ba-bel”, in Nimrod: A Discourse on Certain Passages of History and Fable, volume I, London: Printed [by Thomas Davison] for Richard Priestley, →OCLC, page 206
Proper noun capitalized: Thole
Thole (plural Tholes)
- A surname.
thole meaning in Tamil
thole in Tamil
- இணங்கு
Examples of thole in a sentence
- But then they heard an awful scream that made them leap to their feet, it was as though mother were being torn and torn in the teeth of beasts and couldn't thole it longer; […]1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon [pseudonym; James Leslie Mitchell], “Ploughing”, in Sunset Song: A Novel (A Scots Quair; 1), London: Jarrolds...
- For my own stature, which is five feet eight inches, I find that two feet six inches from the heel to the lower thole, just right, and the tholes should be eighteen inches apart.1870 July 9, Phinehas Field, “Mowing, and Things”, in Simon Brown, Stilman Fletcher, editors, The New England Farmer: Devoted to...
Synonyms of thole
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of thole
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | tholes |
| present participle | tholing |
| past participle | tholed |
| past | tholed |
| Noun | |
| plural | tholes |
| alternative form | thowel |
| alternative form | thowl |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Tholes |
Origin of thole
From Middle English thōle, from tholen, tholien, from Old English þolian, from Proto-West Germanic *þolēn, from Proto-Germanic *þulāną (“to suffer”), from Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“to bear, suffer; to support”), compare Norwegian Bokmål tåle.
From Middle English thō̆le (“a peg”), from Old English þol, þoll (“oar-pin, rowlock; thole”), from Proto-West Germanic *þoll, from Proto-Germanic *þullaz, *þullō (“beam; thole”), from Proto-Indo-European *tūl-, *twel- (“bush; sphere”). The word is cognate with Danish told (“thole”), Dutch dol (“thole; oarlock”), Low German Doll (“thole; oarlock”).
Anglicization of Latin tholus (“cupola, dome, rotunda”), from Ancient Greek θόλος (thólos, “dome, vault”), further etymology uncertain but possibly cognate with θᾰ́λᾰμος (thắlămos, “bedroom; inner chamber”) and/or English dale. Doublet of tholus and tholos.
Words formed from thole
Phrases with thole
Words that rhyme with thole
47 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- parole
- toll
- dole
- goal
- patrol
- role
- swole
- bricole
- condole
- mole
- noel
- whole
- stroll
- bole
- knoll
- shoal
- carmagnole
- foal
- pistole
- prole
- Seoul
- stole
- Tyrol
- baklol
- cajole
- console
- decontrol
- dhole
- droll
- extol
- extrasystole
- gnoll
- hop pole
- indol
- kohl
- memorial pole
- micromole
- mol
- Nicole
- nole
- ole
- parasystole
- schizocoel
- schizocoele
- sowl
- square peg in a round hole
- vole
Questions about thole
- What does thole mean?
- Thole means to suffer.
- What is thole in Tamil?
- Thole in Tamil is இணங்கு. See Thole meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use thole in a sentence?
- But then they heard an awful scream that made them leap to their feet, it was as though mother were being torn and torn in the teeth of beasts and couldn't thole it longer; […]
- What part of speech is thole?
- Thole can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce thole?
- Thole is pronounced /θəʊl/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of thole?
- The past tense of thole is tholed.
Words near thole in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thole (page history and authors); Thole (page history and authors); thole (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-thole.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Aadenboy-thole.wav.
Cite this entry: “thole.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thole. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.