twopenny
English
Etymology
- From two + penny.
- (head): George Orwell explains this in Down and Out in Paris and London as rhyming slang: head > loaf of bread > twopenny loaf > twopenny.
Adjective
twopenny (not comparable)
- Having a value or cost of twopence.
- Cheap; worthless; petty.
- 1888, James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, page 145:
- A pretty degree of knighthood, sir, is that which can be bought with sugar-hogs-heads! and then your twopenny marquisates
- 1940, Woman's Home Companion, volume 67, numbers 1-4, page 134:
- As the door slammed Pete turned to Hally, fuming. "Can you tie that? A little twopenny cold frightening him off."
Noun
twopenny (countable and uncountable, plural twopennies)
- (British, countable, dated) A coin or stamp worth two pence.
- 1852, Edward Litt L. Blanchard, Freaks and follies of fabledom, page 93:
- When the Gauls attacked Rome, he hit upon the plan of pelting the soldiers with twopennies to make them believe they had plenty to eat.
- (British, uncountable, obsolete) Ale sold for two pence per quart.
- (British, countable, slang, obsolete) A person's head.
- 1880, Our Boys' Paper, page 411:
- "It flew all to pieces; and didn't we get it! But look here, Merry, are you on?"
"Yes; tuck in your twopenny."
"No springing, mind."
Derived terms
Related terms
References
- (head): John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary