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shove-ha'penny

[shuhv-hey-puh-nee, -heyp-nee]
noun British.
  1. a shuffleboard game played with coins or brass disks that are pushed by the hand and thumb down a board toward a scoring pit.
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Also shove-half·pen·ny [shuhv-hey-puh-nee, -heyp-nee] /ˈʃʌvˈheɪ pə ni, -ˈheɪp ni/.

Origin of shove-ha'penny

First recorded in 1835–45
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for shove-halfpenny

Historical Examples

  • Shove-halfpenny, a gambling pot-house pastime, played on a table.

    The Slang Dictionary

    John Camden Hotten

  • The favourite game of shove-halfpenny was kept up till a late hour, when the party broke up highly delighted.

  • You now have a prepared patch that can be used for hop-scotch, shove-halfpenny, Rugby football or curling.

  • The game of shove-halfpenny is mentioned in the Times of April 25, 1845, as then played by the lower orders.

    Folk-lore of Shakespeare

    Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer

British Dictionary definitions for shove-halfpenny

shove-halfpenny

noun
  1. British a game in which players try to propel old halfpennies or polished discs with the hand into lined sections of a wooden or slate board
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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