| 释义 |
tenpence|ˈtɛnpəns|
[ten a. + pence.]
A sum of money equal to ten pennies; sometimes used contemptuously, as only tenpence in the shilling, etc. because the amount is incomplete: cf. next.; since 1971 in the U.K., a coin worth ten (new) pence superseding the earlier two-shilling piece or florin; often as two words with pronunc. |tɛn pɛns|. Also attrib. as tenpence coin, tenpence piece, a decimal coin worth ten pence. † So transf., a foreign coin of roughly equivalent value, a franc, a lira.
c1592Marlowe Jew of Malta iv. iv, Gentleman! he flouts me: What gentry can be in a poor Turk of tenpence? 1749Fielding Tom Jones xiv. iii, As sure as ten-pence, this is the very young gentleman. 1860Hotten Dict. Slang (ed. 2) 235 Tenpence to the shilling, a vulgar phrase denoting a deficiency in intellect. 18..Ruskin in B'ham Inst. Mag. Dec. (1896) 71, I never pass a begging friar without giving him sixpence, or the equivalent fivepence of foreign coin, extending the charity even occasionally as far as tenpence, if no fivepenny bit chance to be in my purse. 1903Farmer & Henley Slang s.v., Only tenpence in the shilling, a description of weak intellect. 1922J. Buchan Huntingtower vii. 142 There's a certain old lady, an aunt of Mr. Quentin and his sisters, who has always been about tenpence in the shilling. 1936W. Holtby South Riding 9 ‘Mental?’ ‘Tenpence halfpenny in the shilling.’ 1971P. Purser Holy Father's Navy xxiv. 114, I gave her a ten pence piece and hurried away. 1974A. Fowles Pastime xii. 98 Awkward, that had been, in a phone box. He'd used up two ten pences. 1976G. Seymour Glory Boys xi. 144 He put down two tenpence coins.
Hence ˈtenpenceworth, the amount of anything to be bought for tenpence; used contemptuously.
1896G. B. Shaw Let. 16 Nov. in Ellen Terry & Bernard Shaw (1931) 124, I have been to Paris, and seen Peer Gynt done in the sentimentallest French style with tenpence⁓worth of scenery. |