half-dozen

[half-duhz-uhn, hahf-]

noun

1. one half of a dozen; six.

adjective

1. considering six as a unit; consisting of six.

half-dozen

determiner

1. (preceded by a)

   1. six or a group of six

      a half-dozen roses

   2. ( as pronoun; functioning as singular or plural )

      at least a half-dozen

Word History and Origins

Origin of half-dozen¹

late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425

Example Sentences

Callender’s shop employs more than 80 people and, in the span of just a few years, has added a half-dozen welding robots alongside a menagerie of other automation systems.

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A longtime cat lover—he lives with his wife and a half-dozen cats in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment—Sliwa wants to weaponize the city’s feral felines.

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A Minnesota subcontractor is trying to keep a half-dozen electricians working while it waits for a stalled government contract.

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For that offense, she was grabbed off the street by a half-dozen plainclothes federal agents and detained for weeks in a decrepit ICE facility, thousands of miles away.

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Essentially, “Grounded” is an old-fashioned “Recent Acquisitions” show, with most works entering LACMA’s collection in the last half-dozen years or so.

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