eighty-six

American  

[ay-tee-siks] / ˈeɪ tiˈsɪks /

Or 86

noun

1. a cardinal number, 80 plus 6.

2. a symbol for this number, as 86 or LXXXVI.

3. a set of this many persons or things.

4. Slang. a customer considered undesirable or unwelcome and refused service at a bar or restaurant.

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adjective

1. amounting to 86 in number.

2. Slang. sold out; out of stock.

verb (used with object)

Slang.

1. to refuse to serve (an undesirable or unwelcome customer) at a bar or restaurant.

2. to reject; discard.

Etymology

Origin of eighty-six

First recorded in 1930–35, as slang term in bars and restaurants; sense “refuse” perhaps as rhyming slang for nix ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

eighty-six

The hedge fund that had bought the company had already tried to eighty-six Freds’ rosy sautéed chicken livers over sourdough toast, proving once again that money can’t buy taste.

From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2021

A practitioner still needs to be choosy, though: a recent investigation by the London Times revealed that eighty-six per cent of the rivers in England contained pollution levels exceeding current E.U. standards.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 20, 2020

Doug, at eighty-six, is an example of a healthy man.

From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2019

A man named Richard A. Brown had held the title of Queens D.A. for about as long as they had been alive; now, at age eighty-six, he was not expected to run again.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 4, 2019

“Weed Patch Hill at one thousand one hundred and eighty-six feet above sea level, in Brown County. Known as the Everest of Indiana.”

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

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