twopenny

American  

[tuhp-uh-nee, too-pen-ee] / ˈtʌp ə ni, ˈtuˌpɛn i /

adjective

1. of the amount or value of twopence.

2. costing twopence.

3. of very little value; trifling; worthless.

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twopenny British  

/ ˈtʌpənɪ /

adjective

1. Also: twopenny-halfpenny. cheap or tawdry

2. (intensifier)

   a twopenny damn

3. worth two pence

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Etymology

Origin of twopenny

First recorded in 1525–35; two + penny

Example Sentences

Our daughter picked her way through a mechanical funhouse, then fed twopenny coins into slot machines.

From Washington Post • Feb. 17, 2022

In the most common Random House edition, it’s there, it’s final and it’s huge — an inky one-eighth of an inch in diameter, the head of a twopenny nail stabbed into the book.

From New York Times • Jun. 12, 2018

"London, all agape, crowds to the twopenny tube," the Daily Mail reported in the week of its opening.

From The Guardian • Jan. 9, 2013

With big fuses sputtering among Europe's political high explosives, China's War has recently looked like a chain of twopenny firecrackers.

From Time Magazine Archive

The only other stamps printed in this style were the twopenny blue, issued concurrently with the penny black; the halfpenny rose; and the three-halfpenny red rose, both issued on October 1, 1870.

From Peeps at Postage Stamps by Johnson, Stanley Currie