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definitions

fiver

[fahy-ver]
|

noun Slang.

a five-dollar bill.
British. a five-pound note.

RELATED WORDS

quintuple, cinquefoil, pentangle, pentagram, lustrum, cinque, quinquennium, pentacle, quintuplet, pentagon, limerick, pentad, pentamerous, quinary, quinate, quinquennial, quincunx, quintuplicate

Origin of fiver

First recorded in 1830–40; five + -er1

five

[fahyv]

noun

a cardinal number, four plus one.
a symbol for this number, as 5 or V.
a set of this many persons or things.
a playing card, die face, or half of a domino face with five pips.
Informal. a five-dollar bill: Can you give me two fives for a ten?

adjective

amounting to five in number.

Origin of five

before 1000; 1925–30 for def 7; Middle English; Old English fīf; cognate with Dutch vijf, German fünf, Old Norse fimm, Gothic fimf, Latin quīnque, Greek pénte, Sanskrit pancha
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fiver

Historical Examples of fiver

  • Ill go a fiver that it has something to do with that Heathcote matter.

  • You can have any bullock you like—the biggest in the lot—for a fiver—but, cash down.

  • “Certainly,” says he, and drops a fiver into it before he passes it over.

    Odd Numbers

    Sewell Ford

  • I'll bet a fiver that beyond that you know nothing about it.

    The Prime Minister

    Anthony Trollope

  • So that if a chestnut was a fiver, and it beat a tenner, it became at one leap a fifteener.

British Dictionary definitions for fiver

fiver

noun informal

(in Britain) a five-pound note
(in the US) a five-dollar bill

five

noun

the cardinal number that is the sum of four and one
a numeral, 5, V, etc, representing this number
the amount or quantity that is one greater than four
something representing, represented by, or consisting of five units, such as a playing card with five symbols on it

determiner

  1. amounting to fivefive minutes; five nights
  2. (as pronoun)choose any five you like Related prefixes: penta-, quinque-
See also fives

Word Origin for five

Old English fīf; related to Old Norse fimm, Gothic fimf, Old High German finf, Latin quinque, Greek pente, Sanskrit pañca
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for fiver
n.

1843, "five-pound note," from five + -er.

five

n.

Old English fif, from Proto-Germanic *fimfe (cf. Old Frisian and Old Saxon fif, Dutch vijf, Old Norse fimm, Old High German funf, Gothic fimf), from PIE *penkwe- (cf. Sanskrit panca, Greek pente, Latin quinque, Old Church Slavonic peti, Lithuanian penke, Old Welsh pimp). The sound shift that removed the *-m- is a regular development involving Old English, Old Frisian, and Old Saxon (cf. thought, from stem of think; couth from *kunthaz; us from *uns.

Slang five-finger discount "theft" is from 1966. Five o'clock shadow attested by 1937. The original five-year plan was 1928 in the U.S.S.R.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with fiver

five

see take five.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.