four
/fɔː
/cardinal number
1Equivalent to the product of two and two; one more than three, or six less than ten; 4: Francesca’s got four brothers it took four of them to lift it a four-bedroom house (Roman numeral: iv or IV, archaic iiii or IIII) To supplement this income, Strakan is looking to buy three or four marketable products this year....
- He said she had drunk the equivalent of four pints at the time of her death.
- That's equivalent to four pence on income tax - wait till you see the peace dividend from ending this war.
1.1A group or unit of four people or things: the girls walked in pairs or fours...
- Sign-up in Shenanigans in Pairs please, and try to join with another pair to make a four.
- It was the insurance score his team needed and the final whistle confirmed their place in the last four.
- The league finishes off next week with a home game against New Ross and a win will see Clane finish in the top four.
Synonyms
quartet, foursome, tetralogy, quadruplets;
Poetry quatrain, tetrastich;
Music quadruplet
technical quaternion, tetrad
rare quaternary, quadrumvirate
1.2Four years old: I began to read at four...
- Getting him to sit down at story time proved impossible but by the age of four he was reading newspapers.
- Sally Beamish was born in London and could read and write music by the age of four.
- Something like that happened when I read that no persons under four years of age are allowed to take part.
1.3Four o’clock: it’s half past four...
- At half past four she was relieved by a twelve year old Alty Grammar lad.
- If the match had kicked off at ten to four rather than three o'clock, we might have had a game on our hands at Ram Stadium.
- Can you tell that despite it being ten past four I haven't quite got round to eating breakfast yet?
1.4 Cricket A hit that reaches the boundary after first striking the ground, scoring four runs: he hit a six and seven fours...
- He had a swing and a miss to the first ball, fashioned a four to the cover boundary off the next, and then drove a single to deep point.
- Laxman opened out after that and, on reaching 50, slammed a four and a six off Chris Simpson.
- Opening the innings with Jonathan Beukes, Bosman rained balls into the crowd as he hit nine sixes and seven fours in his 45 ball stay at the crease.
1.5A size of garment or other merchandise denoted by four.Sean went back over to the rack where he saw the red gown and picked up a size four....
- I would have done the same were I in her size fours.
1.6A playing card or domino with four pips.Example: if the player before you makes the pile value 100, the only cards you can play are black aces, fours, red fives, tens, jacks, the Q and the kings....
- Twos count 2, threes count 3, fours count 4, etc, and all the court cards count 10.
- If a four had turned up and you had a four in your hand, you would not be able to meld fours, because stealing the 4 would not leave a valid sequence.
1.7A four-oared rowing boat or its crew: the British women’s coxed four...
- The Women's senior class one coxed fours were also won by a York crew.
- Four members of the crew then went on to win S1 coxed fours in 12 mins 33 secs.
- He explained that he felt the four was the best option for the team and that James and I were going to be in it.
Phrases
the four freedoms
the four main centres
Origin
Old English fēower, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch and German vier, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin quattuor and Greek tessares.