Definitions

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

  • noun An Uncle Tom.

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

  • proper noun A diminutive of the male given name Thomas, also used as a formal male given name.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly onomatopoeia, conflated with the given name, given the practice of giving objects such as Big Ben human names. Alternatively, it may derive from an inscription on the old bell used as metal to make the Great Tom of Oxford in 1680: In Thomæ laude resono bim bom sine fraude.

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Examples

  • TOM VANDEN BROOK, USA TODAY: Well, Tom, what we're talking about is essentially beginning early this year, U.S. strategy shifted from standing up Iraqi security forces and us standing down to us being in charge of providing security for the Iraqi people.

    CNN Transcript Dec 23, 2007 2007

  • TOM VANDEN BROOK, USA TODAY: Well, Tom, what we're talking about is essentially beginning early this year, U.S. strategy shifted from standing up Iraqi security forces and us standing down to us being in charge of providing security for the Iraqi people.

    CNN Transcript Dec 22, 2007 2007

  • TOM O ` NEIL, "INTOUCH WEEKLY": That is really an intriguing mystery, because I don ` t think we can write off the possibility that Tom walked away, because he ` s unrepentant and cocky in everything he does.

    CNN Transcript Aug 23, 2006 2006

  • TOM O'NEIL, SENIOR EDITOR, "IN TOUCH" MAGAZINE: Hollywood believes in happy endings and everyone wants Tom to have one.

    CNN Transcript Sep 4, 2006 2006

  • VIRGINIA COLIN, COLLEAGUE OF TOM FOX: I feel pretty sure that Tom has prepared himself well for just this sort of thing that he knew might happen.

    CNN Transcript Dec 7, 2005 2005

  • It may not have been necessary that there be a 2, ˜2™, Tom, or ˜Tom™; but, given that we do have them, it can never be false to predicate the relevant formal predicates of them.

    Existence Miller, Barry 2002

  • TWINK AND TOM IN OZ The remainder of the day was given over to sightseeing for Twink, Tom, the =

    The Shaggy Man of Oz Snow, Jack 1949

  • "Slade's Hole isn't known outside of Barrell Alley, Tom," he said impressively, although in the same cautious undertone, "but _Tom Slade_ is known from one end of this sector to the other."

    Tom Slade Motorcycle Dispatch Bearer Percy Keese Fitzhugh 1913

  • I became well acquainted with Tom Hood the younger in after years, and to this day I contribute something every year to _Tom Hood's Annual_.

    Memoirs Charles Godfrey Leland 1863

  • _Brown (Tom) _, hero of _Tom Brown's School-Days_ and _Tom Brown at

    Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook Ebenezer Cobham Brewer 1853

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