six
- a cardinal number, five plus one.
- a symbol for this number, as 6 or VI.
- a set of this many persons or things.
- a playing card, die face, or half of a domino face with six pips.
- Cricket. a hit in which the ball crosses the boundary line of the field without a bounce, counting six runs for the batsman.Compare boundary(def 3).
- an automobile powered by a six-cylinder engine.
- a six-cylinder engine.
- amounting to six in number.
- at sixes and sevens,
- in disorder or confusion.
- in disagreement or dispute.
Origin of six
Examples from the Web for six
Contemporary Examples
It was a very faithful homage to a Six Million Dollar Man episode.
‘Archer’ Creator Adam Reed Spills Season 6 Secrets, From Surreal Plotlines to Life Post-ISISMarlow Stern
January 8, 2015
I just recently rewatched all six Star Wars movies the other day… Oh wow, from the beginning?
But the program is just six weeks long, the Pentagon admitted Monday.
Pentagon Insider on New Plan to Fight ISIS: ‘Of Course It’s Not Enough’Nancy A. Youssef
January 6, 2015
Andrew and Fergie separated in 1992 after six years of marriage and formally divorced in 1996.
Several of them disputed the figure of six million Jewish deaths in the Holocaust.
Historical Examples
In ten minutes the fund had reached over six hundred dollars.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
He's stolen five or six hundred dollars in gold from old Paul Nichols.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
"Six hundred and thirty-five dollars," answered Robert, producing it.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
And six weeks after that I had things in shape so't I was able to leave.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
De Lord had been with them in six troubles, and he would not desert them in de seventh.
Harriet, The Moses of Her PeopleSarah H. Bradford
six
- the cardinal number that is the sum of five and oneSee also number (def. 1)
- a numeral, 6, VI, etc, representing this number
- something representing, represented by, or consisting of six units, such as a playing card with six symbols on it
- Also called: six o'clock six hours after noon or midnight
- Also called: sixer cricket
- a stroke in which the ball crosses the boundary without bouncing
- the six runs scored for such a stroke
- a division of a Brownie Guide or Cub Scout pack
- at sixes and sevens
- in disagreement
- in a state of confusion
- knock someone for six informal to upset or overwhelm someone completely; stun
- six of one and half a dozen of the other or six and two threes a situation in which the alternatives are considered equivalent
- amounting to sixsix nations
- (as pronoun)set the table for six
Word Origin
Six
- Les Six (le) a group of six young composers in France, who from about 1916 formed a temporary association as a result of interest in neoclassicism and in the music of Satie and the poetry of Cocteau. Its members were Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, and Germaine Tailleferre
Word Origin and History for six
n.
Old English siex, six, sex, from Proto-Germanic *sekhs (cf. Old Saxon and Danish seks, Old Norse, Swedish, and Old Frisian sex, Middle Dutch sesse, Dutch zes, Old High German sehs, German sechs, Gothic saihs), from PIE *s(w)eks (cf. Sanskrit sas, Avestan kshvash, Persian shash, Greek hex, Latin sex, Old Church Slavonic sesti, Polish szesc, Russian shesti, Lithuanian szeszi, Old Irish se, Welsh chwech).
Six-shooter, usually a revolver with six chambers, is first attested 1844; six-pack of beverage containers is from 1952, of abdominal muscles by 1995. Six of one and half-a-dozen of the other "little difference" is recorded from 1833. Six-figure in reference to hundreds of thousands (of dollars, etc.) is from 1840. Six feet under "dead" is from 1942.
Phrase at sixes and sevens originally was "hazarding all one's chances," first in Chaucer, perhaps from dicing (the original form was on six and seven); it could be a corruption of on cinque and sice, using the French names (which were common in Middle English) for the highest numbers on the dice. Meaning "at odds, in disagreement or confusion" is from 1785, perhaps via a notion of "left unsettled."
Idioms and Phrases with six
six
In addition to the idioms beginning with six
- six feet under
- six of one, half a dozen of the other
also see:
- at sixes and sevens
- deep six
- Joe six-pack