Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

fiver

[fahy-ver]
See more synonyms for fiver on Thesaurus.com
noun Slang.
  1. a five-dollar bill.
  2. British. a five-pound note.
Show More

Origin of fiver

First recorded in 1830–40; five + -er1

five

[fahyv]
noun
  1. a cardinal number, four plus one.
  2. a symbol for this number, as 5 or V.
  3. a set of this many persons or things.
  4. a playing card, die face, or half of a domino face with five pips.
  5. Informal. a five-dollar bill: Can you give me two fives for a ten?
Show More
adjective
  1. amounting to five in number.
Show More
Idioms
  1. take five, Informal. to take a brief respite.
Show More

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. 2018

Examples from the Web for fiver

Historical Examples

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

    Golden Days for Boys and Girls

    Various

  • 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
  1. (in Britain) a five-pound note
  2. (in the US) a five-dollar bill
Show More

five

noun
  1. the cardinal number that is the sum of four and one
  2. a numeral, 5, V, etc, representing this number
  3. the amount or quantity that is one greater than four
  4. something representing, represented by, or consisting of five units, such as a playing card with five symbols on it
Show More
determiner
    1. amounting to fivefive minutes; five nights
    2. (as pronoun)choose any five you like Related prefixes: penta-, quinque-
Show More
See also fives

Word Origin

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.

Show More

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.

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with fiver

five

see take five.

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