Thing (thing), n. [AS. þing a thing, cause, assembly, judicial assembly; akin to þingan to negotiate, þingian to reconcile, conciliate, D. ding a thing, OS. thing thing, assembly, judicial assembly, G. ding a thing, formerly also, an assembly, court, Icel. þing a thing, assembly, court, Sw. & Dan. ting; perhaps originally used of the transaction of or before a popular assembly, or the time appointed for such an assembly; cf. G. dingen to bargain, hire, MHG. dingen to hold court, speak before a court, negotiate, Goth. þeihs time, perhaps akin to L. tempus time. Cf. Hustings, and Temporal of time.]
1.
Whatever exists, or is conceived to exist, as a separate entity, whether animate or inanimate; any separable or distinguishable object of thought.
God made . . . every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind.
Gen. i. 25.
He sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt.
Gen. xiv. 23.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Keats.
2.
An inanimate object, in distinction from a living being; any lifeless material.
Ye meads and groves, unconscious things!
Cowper.
3.
A transaction or occurrence; an event; a deed.
[And Jacob said] All these things are against me.
Gen. xlii. 36.
Which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Matt. xxi. 24.
4.
A portion or part; something.
Wicked men who understand any thing of wisdom.
Tillotson.
5.
A diminutive or slighted object; any object viewed as merely existing; -- often used in pity or contempt.
See, sons, what things you are!
Shak.
The poor thing sighed, and . . . turned from me.
Addison.
I'll be this abject thing no more.
Granville.
I have a thing in prose.
Swift.
6. pl.
Clothes; furniture; appurtenances; luggage; as, to pack or store one's things. [Colloq.]
⇒ Formerly, the singular was sometimes used in a plural or collective sense.
And them she gave her moebles and her thing.
Chaucer.
⇒ Thing was used in a very general sense in Old English, and is still heard colloquially where some more definite term would be used in careful composition.
In the garden [he] walketh to and fro,
And hath his things [i. e., prayers, devotions] said full courteously.
Chaucer.
Hearkening his minstrels their things play.
Chaucer.
7. (Law)
Whatever may be possessed or owned; a property; -- distinguished from person.
8. [In this sense pronounced ting.]
In Scandinavian countries, a legislative or judicial assembly. Longfellow.
Things personal. (Law) Same as Personal property, under Personal. --
Things real. Same as Real property, under Real.
© Webster 1913
Thing, Ting (?), n. [Dan. thing, ting, Norw. ting, or Sw. ting.]
In Scandinavian countries, a legislative or judicial assembly; -- used, esp. in composition, in titles of such bodies. See Legislature, Norway.
© Webster 1913