nevesadj.n.
/ˈnɛvᵻs/, U.S. /ˈnɛvəs/ British slang (originally London).† A. adj.
Seven. Obsolete. rare.
ΚΠ
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 23/1 In their [sc. costermongers'] conversations among themselves, the following are invariably the terms used in money matters... Neves-yenep, Sevenpence.
B. n.
Criminals' slang. A prison sentence of seven years.
ΚΠ
1902 J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley Slang V. 31/2 Nevis,..Seven... Nevis-stretch = seven year's hard.
1958 F. Norman Bang to Rights 22 Your f——ing lucky, I'm doing a bleeding neves.
1967 Car Feb. 31/3 His last unsuccessful exploit has earned him a nevis (seven years) of discomfort at HM pleasure.
1984 Police Rev. 23 Mar. 584/1 A five-year sentence is a ‘handful’; a seven-year one, in a rare example of back slang, is a ‘neves’.
2003 W. Boshoff Licked 6 The word neves has been used among jailbirds for more than a century to indicate a really long prison stretch.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1851