eighty-six

American  

[ey-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.

---

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

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

Chances are that it’s in the Santa Monica Mountains national park, eighty-six per cent of which burned in the Woolsey Fire.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 11, 2019

For the past few decades, church attendance in Poland has been declining; still, eighty-six per cent of Polish citizens identify as Catholic.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 22, 2019

The U.S. would remove fifty-four hundred troops from Afghanistan within a hundred and thirty-five days, and the remaining eighty-six hundred would leave within the next year and a half.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 21, 2019

“A hundred and eighty-six bucks. Everything I had.”

From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen