fourpenny
Americanadjective
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Carpentry.
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noting a nail 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) long.
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noting certain fine nails 1.375 inches (3.5 centimeters) long. 4d
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British. of the amount or value of fourpence.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of fourpenny
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English. See four, penny
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.
When he was a child-actor in London he used to steal waitresses' fourpenny tips to eke out his meagre lunches.
From Time Magazine Archive
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I never, in my fourpenny dining-place, looked at the drayman or porter at the next table and wondered whether he also knew the heights and abysses I knew.
From In Accordance with the Evidence by Onions, Oliver [pseud.]
Never a month but I’ve given you a silver fourpenny for yourself.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson Swanston Edition Vol. 6 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis
There was a clergyman for you, of a very different pattern from that other, who gave, every Sunday, a fourpenny piece wrapped carefully in a piece of paper, to be divided among the waitresses!
From Black Diamonds by Jókai, Mór
How does that agree with a fourpenny tax on a four-pound loaf of bread?
From Through South Africa His Visit to Rhodesia, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, Natal by Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
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.