A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Thrawe, Throw, Throe, Thorrow, n.2 [ME and e.m.E. þrowe (c1200), þrahe (c1250), thrau, þrawe, thraw (all Cursor M.), throwe (Gower), throe (1615), ? OE þrawu painful infliction, affliction, plague, pang, evil.] A throe, a (chiefly, physical) pang or spasm of pain; pain, agony. Also fig.Dedly thraw, lattyre thraw, = Ded(e)-thraw n.(a) c1420 Wynt. ii 199.
For hym thowcht it ane harde thrawe Hwngyr than in tyll hale mawe c1420 Wynt. v 529.
For schame a man … Forbare for tyll [lat] owt the wynd … Swa that he peryst in that thrawe c1420 Wynt. v 823.
In tyll his lattyre thrawe To dede quhen [he] begouth to drawe 1460 Hay Alex. 3945.
Wourthy men … walterand on the grene, Sum dede, sum woundit, in thare dedly thraw 1460 Hay Alex. 18040.
Sone eftir the thrawis tuke him sare c1550 Rolland Ct. Venus iv 360.
Wa worth the day … To se my friend into sic thrist and thraw 1619 Garden Elphinstoun 152.
Passionat complents, Thoughts, agonees, and thraws a1646 Wedderburn Voc. (1709) 13.
De Morbis. Tormen alvi, a thraw in the belly a1650 Music of Scotl. 219/2.
Balou my bab spare thu thi thraws(b) c1420 Wynt. v 3405 (W).
Thare [sc. in the market] thrawand throe sa hard he thristit Till his bowellis within him bristit 1611-57 Mure True Crucifixe 1581.
As death's tormenting throws, as sense of payne, Hee for a season was but to sustaine(c) 1590 Burel Pilgr. ii 417.
Gret sorrows, and thorrows, Ill companie procurisfig. c1660 Sel. Biog. I 270.
Rotting to dead in their ignorance, and none to cry them out of their dead-thraws
