four
- a cardinal number, three plus one.
- a symbol of this number, 4 or IV or IIII.
- a set of this many persons or things.
- a playing card, die face, or half of a domino face with four pips.
- fours, Jazz. alternate four-bar passages, as played in sequence by different soloists: with guitar and piano trading fours.
- Automotive.
- an automobile powered by a four-cylinder engine.
- the engine itself.
- amounting to four in number.
- on all fours. all fours(def 3).
Origin of four
Examples from the Web for four
Contemporary Examples
There are four photos there of representative presidential candidates.
Four weeks after the injections, all 20 of the participants had developed the antibodies needed to stave off the infection.
After four or five months of casual interaction, they realized they both had lost a young parent to cancer.
The injunction, she argued, only applies to these four plaintiffs—not to anyone else.
The Back Alley, Low Blow-Ridden Fight to Stop Gay Marriage in Florida Is Finally OverJay Michaelson
January 5, 2015
Each CAP, also known as an “orbit,” consists on four aircraft.
Historical Examples
Mina, (plural Minæ)—Four pounds, three shillings, four pence.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
Besides, he had four quarts left, for which he expected to find a ready sale.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
Of course you'll do it, and you could do it better if you had three or four times the stake you got.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
A boat was got ready, and the captain got in, with four sailors to row.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
Steered east for four miles, when we struck Mr. Gosse's cart-track.
Explorations in AustraliaJohn Forrest
four
- the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one
- a numeral, 4, IV, etc, representing this number
- something representing, represented by, or consisting of four units, such as a playing card with four symbols on it
- Also called: four o'clock four hours after noon or midnight
- cricket
- a shot that crosses the boundary after hitting the ground
- the four runs scored for such a shot
- rowing
- a racing shell propelled by four oarsmen pulling one oar each, with or without a cox
- the crew of such a shell
- amounting to fourfour thousand eggs; four times
- (as pronoun)four are ready
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for four
n.
Old English feower, from Proto-Germanic *petwor- (cf. Old Saxon fiwar, Old Frisian fiuwer, Frankish *fitter-, Dutch and German vier, Old Norse fjorir, Danish fire, Swedish fyra, Gothic fidwor "four"), from PIE *kwetwer- "four" (cf. Sanskrit catvarah, Avestan čathwaro, Persian čatvar, Greek tessares, Latin quattuor, Oscan petora, Old Church Slavonic četyre, Lithuanian keturi, Old Irish cethir, Welsh pedwar). The phonetic evolution of the Germanic forms has not been fully explained.
Slang four-eyes "person who wears glasses" first recorded 1874. Four-letter word first attested 1934; four-letter man, however, is recorded from 1923 (as a euphemism for a shit). A four-in-hand (1793) was a carriage with four horses driven by one person; in the sense of "loosely tied necktie" it is attested from 1892. To study The History of the Four Kings (1760, cf. French Livres des Quatre Rois) contains euphemistic slang phrase for "a pack of cards" from the time when card-playing was considered a wicked pastime for students. Slang 4-1-1 "essential information" (by 1993) is from the telephone number called to get customer information.
Idioms and Phrases with four
four
In addition to the idioms beginning with four
- four corners of the earth, the
also see:
- between you and me and (the four walls)
- on all fours