eighty-six
Americannoun
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a cardinal number, 80 plus 6.
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a symbol for this number, as 86 or LXXXVI.
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a set of this many persons or things.
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Slang. a customer considered undesirable or unwelcome and refused service at a bar or restaurant.
adjective
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amounting to 86 in number.
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Slang. sold out; out of stock.
verb (used with object)
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to refuse to serve (an undesirable or unwelcome customer) at a bar or restaurant.
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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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
One promethium isotope, with eighty-eight neutrons, has a half-life of a few days; the other, with eighty-six neutrons, has a half-life of a few years.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 27, 2019
Doug, at eighty-six, is an example of a healthy man.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2019
My mother died in 1990, at the age of eighty-six.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 9, 2019
“A hundred and eighty-six bucks. Everything I had.”
From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
