Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hamlet.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A group of houses standing together in the country; a hamlet; a village: used chiefly in place-names, and in names of persons derived from places: as, Althorp, Copmansthorpe.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A group of houses in the country; a small village; a hamlet; a dorp; -- now chiefly occurring in names of places and persons.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun archaic A group of houses standing together in the country; a hamlet; a village.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English; see treb- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English thorp, throp, from Old English þorp, þrop ("farm, village"), from Proto-Germanic *þurpan, *þrepan (“village, farmstead, troop”), from Proto-Indo-European *trab-, *treb- (“dwelling, room”). Cognate with North Frisian torp, terp ("village, fallow"), Dutch dorp ("village"), German Dorf ("hamlet, village, town"), Danish torp ("village"), Swedish torp ("farm, cottage, croft"), Icelandic þorp ("village, farm"), Latin trabs ("beam, rafter, roof"), Lithuanian trōbà ("farmhouse"), Welsh tref ("town"), Albanian trevë ("country, region, village"). Related to troop.

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Examples

  • Yea, and we live in peace here for the most part; for this thorp, which is called Bourton Abbas, is a land of the Abbey of Higham; though it be the outermost of its lands and the Abbot is a good lord and a defence against tyrants.

    The Well at the World's End: a tale William Morris 1865

  • In the thorp was a tavern with the sign of the Nicholas, so Ralph deemed it but right to enter a house which was under the guard of his master and friend; therefore he lighted down and went in.

    The Well at the World's End: a tale William Morris 1865

  • Browning laid the scene of his poem in Germany, save perhaps the use of such words as "thorp" and "croft," but there is a clean, pure morning light playing through the verse, a fresh, health-breathing northern air, which does not fit in with Italy; a joyous, buoyant youthfulness in the song and march of the students who carry their master with gay strength up the mountain to the very top, all of them filled with his aspiring spirit, all of them looking forward with gladness and vigour to life -- which has no relation whatever to the temper of Florentine or

    The Poetry Of Robert Browning 1874

  • Brenda James, in The Truth Will Out 2005 shows that it is an anagram of 'the wise thorp hid thy poet, Henry Nevell writer'.

    Archive 2008-12-01 DC 2008

  • Brenda James, in The Truth Will Out 2005 shows that it is an anagram of 'the wise thorp hid thy poet, Henry Nevell writer'.

    On discovering Shakespeare DC 2008

  • There is a misleading statement here: the authors say that the pronunciation ‘awl-thorp’ is used “in the village”, as if this justifies the pronunciation.

    The Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation | Linguism 2007

  • There is a misleading statement here: the authors say that the pronunciation ‘awl-thorp’ is used “in the village”, as if this justifies the pronunciation.

    The Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation | Linguism 2007

  • In like wise they rode the next day, and came at eventide to a thorp in a fair little dale of the downland, and there they guested with the shepherd-folk, who wondered much at the beauty of

    The Water of the Wondrous Isles 2007

  • There is a misleading statement here: the authors say that the pronunciation ‘awl-thorp’ is used “in the village”, as if this justifies the pronunciation.

    The Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation | Linguism | Language Blog 2007

  • Bloom lights the orchard-appleAnd thicket and thorp are merry

    May is Mary's Month Julie D. 2005

Comments

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  • I come from haunts of coot and hern,

    I make a sudden sally,

    And sparkle out among the fern,

    To bicker down a valley.

    By thirty hills I hurry down,

    Or slip between the ridges,

    By twenty thorps, a little town,

    And half a hundred bridges.

    - Alfred Tennyson, 'The Brook'.

    November 17, 2008