Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. whatever is correct or fashionable within the context; thus un-thing, unfashionable.

1702		Farquhar Twin-Rivals II ii: A moderate glass of cool Nantes is the thing.
c.1705		‘The Thing’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 123: Each levels his Glass, when a Lady they meet, / And if handsome they swear she’s th’ Thing.
1759		O. Goldsmith Citizen of the World lxxvii n.p.: It is at once rich, tasty, and quite the thing [F&H].
1767		G. Colman Oxonian in Town I ii: This is life, this is the thing!
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 62: [She] hated Paris in her heart, / Because he’d seen her shady spring, / And did not think it was the thing.
1781		J. O’Keeffe Dead Alive (1783) 12: My tout ensemble is the thing.
1791		W. Reeve ‘Tippy Bob’ song in Bluebeard [pantomime] My name is Tippy Bob / With a watch in each fob / I am sure I’m the thing.
1801		M. Edgeworth Belinda (1994) 269: This Mr. Vincent, by all accounts, is just the thing.
1816		W.T. Moncrieff All at Coventry II ii: Yes, I’ll leave this cursed Coventry and spank it to London – There I’m the thing, the native, the knowing one, the lively, the fancy, the dandy.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 15: Terms which denote the ton: ‘The go, the mode, or pink of the mode; bang-up, the prime of life, or all prime; the thing, the dash, and a dasher; quite the Varment ― a four-in-hand, a whip.
1824		National Advocate (N.Y.) 28 May 2/3–4: All was noted ‘quite the thing.’.
1836		‘Saint Peter’s Lips’ in Frisky Vocalist 29: Oh! what a lucky dog, (Tom cried), / They’re just the thing, but rather wide.
1841		‘The Queen & The Countryman’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 26: Why that be just the thing, said he, / We’ll crack a bottle together, my dear.
1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 129: Is it my trap you’re talking about? what do you think of it? rather the thing, isn’t it, eh?
1860		Green Mountain Freeman (Montpelier, VT) 2 Feb. 1/2: ‘How does it hit you?’ ‘Square as a brick. Jest the thing’.
c.1865		‘Julius’ Visit to Governor King’ in Fred Shaw’s Champion Comic Melodist 25: Travellin’, for me, / Am just de very ting!
1876		J. Greenwood Low-Life Deeps 180: It is accounted ‘the thing’ to permit the ‘tongues’ of the boots to lap out and wag freely.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Aug. 9/2: By-the-way, red parasols are very much ‘the thing,’ and are used with any dress.
1898		Boy’s Own Paper 26 Nov. 132: ‘Just the thing!’ cried Edward.
1900		T. Dreiser Sister Carrie 79: ‘That’s the thing,’ he said.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 88: He was jist ther very thing.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 240: An’ I s’pose [...] that it wouldn’t be quite the thing, would it, to put a tiggy on his ear?
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 10: ‘The people’ are, therefore, not only ‘the thing,’ but whenever they are ‘the thing’ whole-heartedly, they are also, in the most genuine sense, aristocrats.
1914		‘Ian Hay’ Lighter Side of School Life 220: It was not quite ‘the thing’ to belong to the Corps — presumbly because anybody could belong to it.
1915		C.J. Dennis ‘The Stoush O’ Day’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 29: Late afternoon . . . Day feels ’is flabby arms, / An’ tells ‘imself ’e don’t seem quite the thing.
1920		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Feb. 15/2: You’re the first white woman seen in Boorooloola for a year or two and they want to look the thing,.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 335: Her shoes were the newest thing in footwear.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 253: I can’t exactly come the copper on Sammy. That would hardly be the thing.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 98: It was quite the thing, now.
1947		N. Marsh Final Curtain (1958) 191: Carol Able, who is so scientific and ‘un-thing’ that she’s sort of a monster.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 8: A double-breasted brown pinstripe suit, the kind the Mexicans figure is the thing.
1960		H.E. Bates When the Green Woods Laugh (1985) 289: The unexpected vision of a man riding home from a fox-hunt with a brace of pheasants slung across his horse was altogether too much to bear. Dammit, it wasn’t the thing.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 71: I think narcotics is the coming thing.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 91: A taffeta gown doesn’t seem quite the thing for the Civil Service hoolie.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 5 Sept. 1: The men are the thing at the moment [...] In the 1960s it was the sopranos.

2. (US Black) the facts, the truth .

2009

Observer Mag. 4 Jan. 24: Here’s the thing. I’m not one of these people who’re going to be defined by the ghetto mentality, that you have to have been shot [...] getting high all the time, walking around with pants hanging from your ass – and that’s a black man? I’m not buying that.

3. in good health.

1873		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Little Mr. Bouncer 13: I did not feel quite the thing; so, I thought I would not go to Chapel or lectures and Robert sent in an Æger for me.
1889		B. Mitford Fire Trumpet II 94: You don’t look at all the thing. Have you heard any bad news?
1943		‘Henry Green’ Caught (2001) 59: She hasn’t seemed quite the thing just lately.
1945		‘Henry Green’ Loving (1978) 73: You should have said if you didn’t feel quite the thing.
1975		D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 84: That one’s as deaf as a post and the one on the other side isn’t quite the thing at all.