Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A coin formerly used in Britain and worth six pennies.
- noun The sum of six pennies.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An English silver coin of the value of six pence (about 12 cents); half of a shilling.
- noun The value of six pence, or half a shilling; a slight value: sometimes used attributively.
- noun In the United States, especially in New York, while the coin was in circulation, a Spanish half-real, of the value of 6¼ cents.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An English silver coin of the value of six pennies; half a shilling, or about twelve cents.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A former
coin worth sixold pence ; atanner . - noun obsolete, UK The
value of six old pence.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a small coin of the United Kingdom worth six pennies; not minted since 1970
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He went to a house that he knew of, and offered to chop some wood for sixpence, and with _that sixpence_ he bought the pipes.
Far Off Favell Lee Mortimer 1840
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A YOUNG spendthrift being apprised that he had given a shilling when sixpence would have been enough, remarked that "He knew no difference between a _shilling_ and _sixpence_."
The Jest Book The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings Mark Lemon 1839
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"They like things to be neat and new, and that sixpence is bent."
Mopsa the Fairy 1910
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"A sixpence is a tanner, and a shilling a bob; but what a pony is I don't know."
Chapter 14 1904
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Juries also disliked convicting when the penalty for coining sixpence was the same as the penalty for killing a mother.
The English Utilitarians, Volume I. Leslie Stephen 1868
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"Do you mean thieves 'slang -- cant? no, I don't speak cant, I don't like it, I only know a few words; they call a sixpence a tanner, don't they?"
Lavengro the Scholar - the Gypsy - the Priest George Henry Borrow 1842
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"Do you mean thieves 'slang -- cant? no, I don't speak cant, I don't like it, I only know a few words; they call a sixpence a tanner, don't they?"
Lavengro The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest George Henry Borrow 1842
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I only know a few words; they call a sixpence a tanner, don't they? '
Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest George Henry Borrow 1842
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"Do you mean thieves 'slang -- cant? no, I don't speak cant, I don't like it, I only know a few words; they call a sixpence a tanner, don't they?"
Lavengro The Scholar - The Gypsy - The Priest, Vol. 2 (of 2) George Henry Borrow 1842
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“A sixpence is a tanner, and a shilling a bob; but what a pony is I don’t know.”
Chapter 14 2010
ruzuzu commented on the word sixpence
See tester and tanner.
June 29, 2010