twentyadj.n.
/ˈtwɛnti/, U.S. /ˈtwɛn(t)i/ The cardinal numeral equal to two tens, represented by the symbols 20 or xx (formerly sometimes xxti = Latin viginti).
A. adj.
1.
a. With modified noun expressed (or in Old English in plural form with implied noun).
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OE Cynewulf Elene 829 He on .xx. fotmælum feor funde behelede.
c1000 Ælfric Numbers xi. 19 Næs to anum dæge, ne to twam,..ne to tynum, ne to twentigum [dagum].
a1225 Leg. Kath. 2502 Twenti dahene ȝong [= journey].
c1330 R. Mannyng Chron. (1810) 282 Wele tuenti ȝere.
?1478 W. Paston in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) I. 649 He seythe ye be xxtis. in hys dette.
1583 T. Stocker tr. Tragicall Hist. Ciuile Warres Lowe Countries ii. 48 A great multitude of people, who come twentie mile of to this goodly feast.
1637 Decree Starre-Chamber conc. Printing xv. sig. E2 There shall be but Twentie Master Printers allowed to haue the vse of one Presse.
1758 R. Brown Compl. Farmer (1759) 71 A hen sits twenty days.
1853 J. H. Newman Hist. Sketches (1873) II. i. ii. 75 In the course of twenty years a new generation would arise.
b. Combined with the numerals below ten (one to nine) to express the numbers between twenty and thirty; formerly (and still occasionally) one and twenty, two and twenty, etc. (rarely twenty and one, etc.); now commonly twenty-one, twenty-two, etc.; similarly with the ordinals from first to ninth, forming the ordinals corresponding to the above ( twenty-first, twenty-second, etc.), in modern use substituted for the earlier one-and-twentieth, two-and-twentieth, etc. (see twentieth adj. 1c).
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the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > eleven to ninety-nine > [adjective] > twenty
twentyc893
c893 tr. Orosius Hist. vi. ii. 256 Þara twa & twentigra monna þe he him to fultume hæfde acoren.
a1131 Anglo-Saxon Chron. ann. 1124 Þes kinges cnihtes..namen..fif and twenti oðre cnihtes.
1297 R. Gloucester's Chron. (Rolls) 1532 Vif & twenti ȝer.
a1400–50 Alexander 3930 Aȝt & tuenti men of armes.
1526 Proclam. 5 Nov. in Pat. Roll 18 Hen. VIII ii. m. 2 d The Soueraygne..shalbe curraunt..for twenty two shillynges and sixe pens.
1596 J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie Hist. Scotl. (1888) I. 150 Four and tuentie cubites hich.
1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies iii. xviii. 177 I haue gone ouer twenty and seauen riuers vpon that coast.
1777 W. Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) I. ii. 163 In the parallel of twenty-two degrees of latitude.
1796 J. G. Stedman Narr. Exped. Surinam II. xxv. 216 What he called his Silver-feast, being the twenty-fifth anniversary of his marriage.
1820 R. Southey Life Wesley I. 53 More than four-and-twenty pounds.
1857 W. A. Miller Elements Chem. (1862) III. 204 Allowing the..mixture to stand for twenty-four hours.
c. As multiplier before a numeral, usually a higher one, as †twenty hundred obsolete (= two thousand), twenty thousand, etc. (often hyperbolically: cf. A. 1d). So twenty-one thousand, etc.
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c950 Lindisf. Gosp. Luke xiv. 31 Mið tuoentigum ðusendum [Rushw. twoegentigum ðusenda] cymeð to him.
c1000 West Saxon Gospels: Luke (Corpus Cambr.) xiv. 31 Agen þone þe him agen cymð mid twentigum þusendum.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 13388 Twenti hundred cnihten.
1377 W. Langland Piers Plowman B. xvi. 10 I wolde trauaille..þis tree to se twenty hundreth myle.
c1386 G. Chaucer Manciple's Tale 65 Yet hath this brid by twenty thousand foold Leuere in a fforest..Goon ete wormes.
a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 133 Off the glen Quhettane twenti scoir He drawe as oxin him befoir.
1593 W. Shakespeare Venus & Adonis sig. F If loue haue lent you twentie thousand tongues. View more context for this quotation
1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess iv. 69 I would pipe and trill, And cheep and twitter twenty million loves.
1916 N.E.D. at Twenty Mod. Twenty thousand pounds sterling. Twenty million dollars.
d. Used vaguely or hyperbolically for a large number.a twenty devil way: see a twenty devil way at devil n. Phrases 1a(a).
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1508 Golagros & Gawane (Chepman & Myllar) sig. ciiiiv His scheild he chopit hym fra In tuenty pecis and ma.
1513 G. Douglas in tr. Virgil Æneid i. Prol. 260 A twenty devill mot fall his werk at anis.
1593 W. Shakespeare Venus & Adonis sig. E Were beautie vnder twentie locks kept fast. View more context for this quotation
1622 F. Bacon Hist. Raigne Henry VII 228 Vpon Twentie respects hee could not haue beene the Man.
1747 S. Richardson Clarissa II. xxviii. 164 I only came..to sit and talk of twenty and twenty fond things, as I used to do.
1848 T. A. Buckley tr. Homer Iliad 412 Not even if they should place ten-fold and twenty-times such ransoms.
e. twenty-four hours a day, all the time, incessantly.
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the world > action or operation > continuing > continually (in action) [phrase]
night and dayeOE
day and nightOE
without(en) blina1300
morning, noon, and nightc1325
but stintc1330
by and byc1330
early and latec1330
without ceasec1330
without ceasinga1340
withouten hoc1374
without releasec1400
still opece1422
in a ranec1480
never ceasable?1518
without remorse1555
every foot (and anon)1561
round1652
year in and year out1819
twenty-four hours a day1914
the world > time > frequency > [adverb] > repeatedly
day and nightOE
morning, noon, and nightc1325
new and newa1425
time after time?a1425
over and overa1470
toties quoties1525
again and again1533
reiteratively1619
over and over again1637
repeatedlya1647
times without number1658
to and again1659
—— in, —— out1815
time and time again1821
day in (and) day out1824
recurringly1828
repetitiously1828
recurrently1841
repetitively1872
ever and again1880
recursively1901
twenty-four hours a day1914
serially1978
1914 G. B. Shaw Parents & Children in Misalliance p. xl If we were habitually underworked and overfed, our notion of heaven would be a place where everybody worked strenuously for twenty four hours a day and never got anything to eat.
1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 13 June 15 The least useful man..is the..type, who is belligerent 24 hours a day.
1951 W. Faulkner Requiem for Nun ii. i. 143 Shut up in that room twenty-four hours a day.
1980 J. Barnett Palmprint xiv. 149 There are American military planes over the Caribbean twenty-four hours a day.
2.
a. With ellipsis of the noun (which may usually be supplied from the context). So twenty-one, twenty-first, etc. †and twenty, used as an intensive.
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c961 Æthelwold Rule St. Benet (Gr.) xxii. 47 [Let them sleep] tynum and twentigum on anum inne ætgædere.
c1000 Ælfric Genesis xviii. 31 God cwæð: Ne do ic hit, gif þær beoð twentig.]
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 1692 We mine fader habbet vnder-fon mid þirtti cnihten...Do we awai þane twenti.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 16906 A mikel stan, to turn i-nogh had tuent [rhyme monument].
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Gen. xviii. D Peraduenture there might be twentie founde therin [twētie & Peraduēture in text].
1605 S. Rowley When you see Me sig. D2 Godyegodnight and twentie syr.
1608 T. Middleton Your Fiue Gallants sig. A3v As in one pie twenty may dip their sippits.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) ii. iii. 50 In delay there lies no plentie, Then come kisse me sweet and twentie: Youths a stuffe will not endure. View more context for this quotation
1735 S. Johnson tr. J. Lobo Voy. Abyssinia 115 The ordinary Dose is six of these Rinds, and I had devour'd twenty.
1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 550 The first man to reach the summit was Sir Richard Burton... He went up, as did the succeeding twenty-five (mostly Germans) from Babundi.
1902 O. Wister Virginian xxiii. 270 His thermometer..registered twenty below zero.
b. spec. with ellipsis of years (of age); so twenty-one, etc.
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1773 O. Goldsmith She stoops to Conquer iii. 52 What will repair beauty at forty, will certainly improve it at twenty.
1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. II. 275 He..was smart, spoffish, and eight-and-twenty.
1849 E. B. Eastwick Dry Leaves 83 A young man of twenty.
1898 B. M. Croker Peggy of Bartons xxix I shall be twenty-one in April.
c. The ordinals twenty-first, twenty-second, etc. are ordinarily used with ellipsis of day (of the month), also year (of a reign). Also twenty-first with ellipsis of birthday; cf. twenty-firster n.
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the world > time > particular time > an anniversary > [noun] > birthday > specific birthday
twenty-first1873
1669 F. Vernon Let. 19 June in Lang Valet's Trag., etc. (1903) 51 My last of the 26th Currt.
1711 London Gaz. No. 4902/2 The King..was to embark on the Twenty-seventh.
1777 W. Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) I. ii. 141 He set sail..on the twenty-fifth of September.
1873 C. M. Yonge Pillars of House I. xi. 229 Here was his twenty-first not very far off.
1879 E. Waterton Pietas Mariana 78 In the twenty-second of Henry the Seventh.
1886 R. L. Stevenson Kidnapped xxvi. 261 The house..where we slept the twenty-first of the month.
1937 ‘M. Innes’ Hamlet, Revenge! i. i. 23 Celebrating a daughter's twenty-first by dressing her in white satin.
1975 ‘J. Lymington’ Spider in Bath vii. 121 My daughter's twenty-first tomorrow. I should have collected a watch from the jeweller.
d. the twenty (at Rugby School): see quot. a1894. the twenty-four, a body of 24 men having some special office (at various times and places: see quots.).
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > types of body or spec. bodies > [noun] > of specific number of people
the twenty-four1440
octovirate1610
douzaine1771
troika1945
society > education > learning > learner > one attending school > [noun] > division of pupils > form or class
form1560
first forma1602
remove1718
shell1736
sixth-form1807
lower sixth (form)1818
pettya1827
grade1835
the twenty1857
baby class1860
standard1862
nursery class1863
primer1885
reception class1902
sixth form1938
reception1975
1440 in Glew Hist. Walsall (1856) 105 The Masters..shall not make gift or graunt of eny donacion of eny Chantrey..withoute the assent of the xxiiij.
1736 F. Drake Eboracum i. vi. 184 These citizens are commonly called by the name of the twenty four; though they may be more or less than that number.
1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days ii. viii. 403 How well I remember the day we were put out of the twenty [into the sixth form].
1890 C. Gross Gild Merchant II. 347 The governing body is no longer [after 1622] called ‘the twenty-four’..but simply the ‘probi homines’.
a1894 C. H. Pearson in Stebbing Life (1900) 23 Scholarship at Rugby was picked up in the Twenty, a sort of lower sixth.
e. †twenty in the hundred, a 20 per cent. rate of interest on loans; transferred a usurer. twenty to one, twenty chances to one; an expression of very strong probability.
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society > trade and finance > financial dealings > moneylending > [noun] > one who lends money > at interest
ten tribes971
gavellerc1200
usurerc1290
Caorsin1303
collybistc1380
ockererc1390
fenerator1447
usuraryc1450
usurier1480
user1566
fulker1568
money-monger1571
moneylender1598
twenty in the hundred1602
Jew's trump1605
putter-outa1616
money-bawd1631
chevisancer1633
use-man1633
Lombardeer1645
money-banker1677
bummaree1738
mahajan1852
sixty per cent1853
gombeen-man1862
1602 B. Jonson Poetaster iii. iv. sig. Fv Thou art an honest Twentie i'the hundred.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona (1623) i. i. 72 Twenty to one then, he is ship'd already. View more context for this quotation
1916 N.E.D. at Twenty Mod. Ellington won the Derby in 1856 at 20 to 1.
3. Used for the ordinal twentieth adj. and n.; so twenty-one (one and twenty) for twenty-first, etc. Now only after a noun in such collocations as chapter twenty, verse twenty-one, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > eleven to ninety-nine > [adjective] > twenty > twentieth
twentietha900
twentya1100
a1100 Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) anno 1086 On þam an & twentigan geare þæs þe Willelm weolde & stihte Engle land.
1297 R. Gloucester's Chron. (Rolls) 7105 In þe ȝer of is kinedom tuenty & tuo.
c1380 J. Wyclif Last Age Ch. in Todd 3 Treat. p. xxxv As Dauiþ seiþ, þe on and twenty Salme.
c1480 (a1400) St. Mary of Egypt 208 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 302 One [= on] þe twenty day at þe sexte oure.
1528–30 tr. T. Littleton Tenures (new ed.) f. xxix Thoughe the horse..be not the twenty parte worth in value of the some of money.
1567 Gude & Godlie B. 2 The ten commandementis..in Exodus the twentie Chapter.
B. n. (with plural twenties).
1.
a. The abstract number 20; a symbol representing this. So twenty-one, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > eleven to ninety-nine > [noun] > twenty
twenty?c1425
?c1425 Crafte Nombrynge in R. Steele Earliest Arithm. in Eng. (1922) 22 Take [1]2 out of twenty, & þere schal leue 8.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 141/1 Country People..reckon..their numbers..by..Scores or Twenty's.
1725 I. Watts Logick ii. v. §5 Some Things..almost as certain..as that..five Twenties make a Hundred.
a1831 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. 384 The numeral language is constructed in conformity with the Phœnician numerals, proceeding by twenties as far as 100.
1916 N.E.D. at Twenty Mod. Twenty is an even number. A twenty is printed thus: xx, 20.
b. A person or thing distinguished by this number, usually as the twentieth in a series; so twenty-one, twenty-two, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > eleven to ninety-nine > [noun] > twenty > thing or person distinguished by the number
twenty1888
1888 H. Morten Sketches Hosp. Life 18 I..heard her ask..‘Who is “Twenty-two”?’—one of the detestable habits of the place being to call you by the number of your bed.
2.
a. A group or set of twenty persons or things. So (rarely) a twenty-five, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > eleven to ninety-nine > [noun] > twenty > twenty things, persons, etc.
twenty1637
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > eleven to ninety-nine > [noun] > twenty > group or set of twenty
scorec1290
twenty1637
1637 G. Gillespie Dispute against Eng.-Popish Ceremonies iv. vi. 26 Many societies conveened to the eating of the Paschall Supper by Twenties.
1724 J. Swift Verses Upright Judge in Wks. (1735) II. 469 My Grand-dame had Gallants by Twenties.
1878 Athletic World 6 Dec. 430/1 The game lasting two twenties.
1879 R. Browning Ned Bratts in Idyls I. 34 A twenty-five were tried, rank puritans caught at prayer In a cow-house.
b. Something equivalent to twenty of some unit, e.g. a twenty-pound bank-note.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > paper money > English banknotes > [noun] > twenty-pound note
twenty1839
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > eleven to ninety-nine > [noun] > twenty > twenty things, persons, etc. > equivalent of
twenty1839
1839 Spirit of Times 8 June 162/2 We had the gratification of seeing it [sc. his jockeyship] rewarded by more presents of odd fifties and twenties than probably Daniel ever saw in his lifetime.
1850 Househ. Words 21 Sept. 620/1 There were two twenties, were there not?
1977 Transatlantic Rev. No. 60. 140 ‘God knows neither of you can call me ungrateful.’ He put a twenty in front of each of them.
c. A sheet (of a book) folded into 20 leaves (4 × 5), or each leaf of such a sheet. (Cf. twentymo n. at twentyfourmo n. Derivatives.)
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > kind of book > size of book > [noun] > twentymo
twenty1770
twentymo1841
1770 P. Luckombe Conc. Hist. Printing 418 A Sheet of Twenties.
1824 J. Johnson Typographia II. vii. 172 [headed *28] A Half Sheet of Twenties.
3. Something characterized in some way by the number twenty. So the compound numerals, as twenty-four (a flowerpot of which there are 24 in a cast, etc.) See also (in special senses) twenty-five n., twenty-four n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > eleven to ninety-nine > [noun] > twenty > thing characterized by the number
twenty1842
1842 J. C. Loudon Suburban Horticulturist 515 Those that have the strongest roots re-pot into twenty-fours.
1850 G. Glenny Hand-bk. Flower Garden 251 In June, the potted ones will bear shifting to a size twenty-four.
1895 Daily News 22 Feb. 4/6 From twenties to twenty-fours, that is, from cotton with twenty hanks in the pound to the finer sort of cotton with twenty-four hanks in the pound.
4. plural. The numbers from 20 to 29; the years in a century or of one's life, or the degrees of any scale (e.g. of a thermometer) so numbered.
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the world > life > source or principle of life > age > [noun] > specific age
yearOE
scorea1400
seventeena1568
threescorea1616
jubileea1640
military age1656
legal age1658
tecnogoniaa1676
sixty1717
forty1732
fifty1738
seven-year-old1762
teen1789
septuagenarianism1824
sexagenarianism1824
day-old1831
seventeen-year-old1858
centenarianism1863
roaring forties1867
twenties1874
leaving age1875
school-leaving age1881
octogenarianism1883
reading age1906
three1909
teenage1912
eleven-plus1937
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > measurement of temperature > [noun] > instrument > specific degrees on a thermometer
stationary pointa1751
nineties1873
twenties1874
the world > time > period > year > [noun] > period of specific number of years > decade > specific decade in a century or person's life
seventies1845
nineties1871
twenties1874
the fifties1880
the thirties1880
the forties1885
sixties1964
zeros1989
1874 D. M. Mulock My Mother & I xiv. 301 In their twenties girls feel differently from what they do in their teens.
1886 Athenæum 16 Oct. 495/2 Little Claude Ramsay..in his twenties is always thinking about ‘the draught’.
1886 J. R. Seeley Short Hist. Napoleon I 262 Had Louis XV died in childhood..there would certainly have been in the twenties a war of the French Succession.
1893 L. Twining Recoll. 242 A temperature in the twenties for some days.
1893 G. Hill Hist. Eng. Dress II. 235 Arrayed in the costume of the twenties.
1894 Voice (N.Y.) 22 Feb. In age I judged them to be near the middle of the twenties.
1898 R. Kipling in W. Nicholson Almanac of Twelve Sports July The child of the Nineties..in pursuit of a girl whom The Twenties will dub a ‘last-century heirloom’.
1930 Sat. Rev. 15 Mar. 328 The giants of the roaring 'twenties ought to be able to achieve glory of some sort in half as many years.
1956 A. S. C. Ross in M. Black Importance of Lang. (1962) 97 At Oxford in the late twenties the use of the surname..was a known gaucherie.
1969 Listener 26 June 903/1 A scandalous title, or course, for a book which was, in the Twenties manner, meant to scandalise.
1976 J. Grenfell Joyce Grenfell requests Pleasure (1977) i. 21 I see us now,..our peculiar Twenties figures forced flat by bust-bodices.
5. attributive (and elliptical) as in twenty (twenty-two, etc.) port, port wine of the year 1820 (1822, etc.).
ΚΠ
1860 All Year Round 5 May 87 Acquainted with 'Twenty port, and comet vintages.
1891 S. Mostyn Curatica 10 Mostyn likes the 22 Port very much.
Compounds
Combinations. C1. Adjectives or attributive phrases formed by twenty with a noun (= measuring, containing, weighing, etc. twenty of the things named).
a. † twenty-centimetre adj. Obsolete† twenty-foot worm n. Obsolete A centipede.
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1904 Daily Chron. 28 May 5/4 20-centimetre guns.
twenty-cubit adj.
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1876 Ld. Tennyson Harold iii. i. 79 Golden cherubim With twenty-cubit wings.
twenty-foot adj.
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?a1500 Nominale (Yale Beinecke 594) in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 766/28 Hic multipes, a tuentifot-wurme.
1910 Encycl. Brit. X. 258/1 Several large feeding-drains were dug, including the Forty Foot,..the Sixteen Foot river,..and the Twenty Foot river.
Thesaurus »
Categories »
twenty-grain adj.
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1890 Internat. Ann. Anthonys Photogr. Bull. 40 A twenty-grain solution of gelatine.
twenty-gun adj.
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1757 J. Lind Lett. Navy i. 34 Captains of 20, 40, and 50 gun ships.
twenty-inch adj.
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1849 H. M. Noad Lect. Electr. (ed. 3) 92 A twenty-inch cylinder electrical machine.
twenty-knot adj.
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1903 Daily Chron. 3 July 8/2 The twenty-knot wind blowing here to-day.
twenty-man n.
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1905 Daily Chron. 24 July 7/1 A member of the English twenty-man team.
twenty-mark adj.
ΚΠ
1788 J. Skinner Eccl. Hist. Scotl. II. 588 These itinerant preachers were..called the ‘Twenty Merk Men’.
1908 Daily Chron. 4 Aug. 1/2 The Kaiser..rewarded him with a twenty mark piece.
twenty-mile adj.
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1902 Daily Chron. 10 May 10/1 Come down to the country and take twenty-mile walks.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 4 Aug. 6/3 Districts within the twenty-mile radius of London.
twenty-minute adj.
ΚΠ
1898 Westm. Gaz. 27 July 1/1 The twenty-minute sitting [of the House of Lords].
1939 P. G. Wodehouse Uncle Fred in Springtime xi. 150 No matter how suave her manner for the nonce, she is at heart a twenty-minute egg.
twenty-penny adj.
ΚΠ
1794 W. Hutchinson Hist. Cumberland I. 175 (note) 3l. a year customary rent..with a twenty-penny fine.
twenty-plume adj. (Applied to a small species of moth, Alucita polydactyla).
twenty-pound adj.
ΚΠ
1761–2 D. Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) III. 800 The small proprietors, or twenty-pound men.
1822 J. Galt Provost xxx. 232 I received a twenty-pound note.
twenty-round adj.
ΚΠ
1899 Daily News 12 Jan. 7/5 A twenty-round glove fight.
twenty-shilling adj.
ΚΠ
1797 W. Woodfall Impartial Rep. Deb. Parl. II. 137 Mr. Tierney proposed a question, whether,..he should go to a shop to buy goods to the amount of five shillings, and offer one of these twenty shilling notes.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xxii. 698 The ministers at one time resolved to issue twentyshilling bills..for the payment of the troops.
twenty-yard adj.
ΚΠ
1903 Westm. Gaz. 23 Oct. 3/1 You practically never see a twenty-yard putt go ten yards off the line of the hole.
twenty-year adj.
ΚΠ
1902 Westm. Gaz. 2 Sept. 8/2 Rated..heavily upon the twenty-year endowment plan.
b. With compound numerals.
twenty-five-foot adj.
ΚΠ
1897 Outing 30 355/2 Two twenty-seven-footers,..Rocky John, as the Commodore's twenty-five-foot craft was dubbed.
c.
twenty-four-feet adj.
ΚΠ
1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 82 The superior velocity of the 24 feet wheel.
twenty-four-penny adj.
ΚΠ
1850 J. Greenwood Sailor's Sea-bk. 135 24, 30, and 40-penny nails.
twenty-four-pound adj.
ΚΠ
1825 J. Neal Brother Jonathan III. 380 A few twenty four pound shot.
twenty-four-thread adj.
ΚΠ
1903 Daily Chron. 30 May 5/1 A light rod and 24-thread line.
d.
twenty-one-inch adj.
e.
twenty-thousand-ton adj.
ΚΠ
1909 Daily Chron. 25 Sept. 5/5 The nineteen or twenty-thousand ton Dreadnoughts.
f.
twenty-two-mile adj.
ΚΠ
1902 Westm. Gaz. 7 Nov. 2/1 A twenty-two-mile bridge across the Great Salt Lake.
g.
twenty-bore n. (Of a gun: cf. twelve-bore adj. and n. at twelve adj. and n. Compounds 2c).
ΚΠ
1892 W. W. Greener Breech-loader 43 The 20-bore has been strenuously advocated by writers in the sporting papers, but there are very few sold.
1908 Outlook 29 Aug. 280/1 The light twelve-bores now built especially for ladies' use..weigh no more than sixteen- or even twenty-bore guns of average weight.
twenty-two-gauge n.
ΚΠ
1840 D. P. Blaine Encycl. Rural Sports §2430 The higher the number of bullets [to the pound], the smaller is the caliber... Mr. Joseph Manton..recommends two-feet-eight and twenty-two gauge as a general sporting length and bore of gun-barrel.
C2. Parasynthetic nouns (see -er suffix1 1).
a.
twenty-footer n.
ΚΠ
1899 Daily News 18 Nov. 4/5 A twenty-foot snake..had a quarrel with a fourteen-foot snake. The fourteen-footer was eating a chicken, which the twenty-footer coveted.
twenty-knotter n.
ΚΠ
1898 Harper's Mag. Nov. 830 They [ships] are to be twenty-knotters.
twenty-pointer n.
ΚΠ
1908 Westm. Gaz. 11 Sept. 10/1 Some remarkably fine heads have been secured in Highland deer forests... A twenty-pointer was killed by Lord Burton..fifteen years ago.
twenty-pounder n.
ΚΠ
1861 W. F. Collier Hist. Eng. Lit. 403 A silver-scaled twenty-pounder [salmon].
1891 ‘S. C. Scrivener’ Our Fields & Cities 39 Persons paying rates on twenty pounds... These twenty-pounders.
b. With the compound numerals.
twenty-eight-pounder n. (also twenty-four-pounder, twenty-five-pounder, twenty-six-pounder, twenty-thousand-pounder, etc.)
ΚΠ
1684 J. P. von Valcaren Relation Siege Vienna 108 Twenty four pounder.
1684 J. P. von Valcaren Relation Siege Vienna 109 Twenty eight pounders.
1684 J. P. von Valcaren Relation Siege Vienna 109 Twenty six pounders.
1756 Connoisseur No. 121. ⁋6 A careful old gentleman came..to marry his son, and was recommended..to a twenty thousand pounder.
1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine at Cannon A piece that discharges a ball of twenty-four pounds, is called a twenty-four-pounder.
a1944 K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) 10 25-pounders and quads, Bofors guns in pits with their crews lying beside them.
1983 J. Masters Man of War xx. 264 Now came the first shell from the 25-pounders.
twenty-one-gunner n.
ΚΠ
1900 Daily Chron. 31 Aug. 5/1 The Gaekwar is a ‘twenty-one gunner’—one of the three Indian Princes who alone are entitled to the royal salute.
C3. Parasynthetic adjectives.
twenty-breeched adj.
ΚΠ
1819 W. Scott Legend of Montrose ii, in Tales of my Landlord 3rd Ser. III. 189 A soldier of honour shall be dragged..before a base mechanical burgo-master,..as if he were one of their own mean, amphibious, twenty-breeched boors.
twenty-coloured adj.
ΚΠ
1600 E. Fairfax tr. T. Tasso Godfrey of Bulloigne xvi. xxiv. 285 Nor golden Iris so bendes in the aire Her twentie colour'd bow.
C4. Special combinations:
twenty-first century adj. living in the twenty-first century; characteristic of the imagined conditions of the twenty-first century.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > period > year > [noun] > period of specific number of years > a century > specific centuries
nineteenth century1790
American Century1935
twenty-first century1964
1964 D. Francis Nerve iii. 37 He was what I pictured twenty-first century man should be—intensely alive, curiously innocent.
1979 D. Brierley Cold War v. 49 The computer…it's very big, very expensive, very twenty-first century.
1980 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts July 467/2 Everyone in the country must adapt to twentyfirst-century living and working patterns.
twenty-four carat adj. colloquial (a) thoroughgoing, unalloyed, out-and-out; (b) genuine, flawless, trustworthy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > [adjective] > utter or absolute
shirea1225
purec1300
properc1380
plainc1395
cleana1400
fine?a1400
entirec1400
veryc1400
starka1425
utterc1430
utterlyc1440
merec1443
absolute1531
outright1532
cleara1535
bloodyc1540
unproachable1544
flat1553
downright1577
sheer1583
right-down?1586
single1590
peremptory1601
perfecta1616
downa1625
implicit1625
every way1628
blank1637
out-and-outa1642
errant1644
inaccessional1651
thorough-paced1651
even down1654
dead1660
double-dyed1667
through stitch1681
through-stitched1682
total1702
thoroughgoing1719
thorough-sped1730
regular1740
plumb1748
hollow1751
unextenuated1765
unmitigated1783
stick, stock, stone dead1796
positive1802
rank1809
heart-whole1823
skire1825
solid1830
fair1835
teetotal1840
bodacious1845
raw1856
literal1857
resounding1873
roaring1884
all out1893
fucking1893
pink1896
twenty-four carat1900
grand slam1915
stone1928
diabolical1933
fricking1937
righteous1940
fecking1952
raving1954
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > foundation in fact, validity > [adjective] > genuine, real
soothc888
soothlyc888
soothfastc1175
germanec1384
truea1398
sickera1400
upright?a1500
uncounterfeita1542
righteous1543
legitimate1551
truepennya1556
arrant1570
uncounterfeited1571
real1573
current1578
genuinal1599
unforged1610
unpretended1611
legitime1614
unabusinga1628
Lubish1632
genuine1639
undissembled1651
undissimulate1652
ingenuine1661
infallacious1677
real live1684
unfalsified1688
unmistaken1694
pukka1776
undissimulated1776
unassumed1818
uncynical1824
Simon Pure1834
sure-enough1837
unsimulated1840
straight-out1848
true blue1852
veritable1862
really (and) truly1864
authentic1868
true-metal1868
kosher1896
twenty-four carat1900
honest to goodness1905
echt1916
dinky-di1918
McCoy1928
twenty-two carat1962
right1969
1900 ‘S. Grand’ Babs lxxxi A regular twenty-four carat cad—without alloy.
1965 D. Francis Odds Against iii. 40 It is you..who is the dyed-in-the-wool, twenty-four carat, unmitigated bastard.
1968 Times 21 Dec. 2/3 The legs in thigh-length boots are still lissom, 24 carat.
1974 G. Jenkins Bridge of Magpies v. 71 I'd accepted her story as 24-carat.
1984 Times 7 Mar. 28 The rest..had to work up real 24-carat grins.
twenty-four-hour n. attributive (a) lasting twenty-four hours; (b) of or pertaining to a system of reckoning the time whereby the hours of the day are numbered from one to twenty-four; (c) operating all day and all night, round-the-clock.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > reckoning of time > [adjective] > twenty-four hour (of system)
twenty-four-hour1908
the world > time > period > hour > [adjective] > lasting specific number of hours
sesquihoral1652
houred1665
hour-long1803
twenty-four-hour1908
the world > action or operation > continuing > [adjective] > continually in action or operation > operating all day and night
round the clock1891
twenty-four-hour1908
around the clock1918
1908 Westm. Gaz. 25 May 5/2 The twenty-four-hour trip across the country.
1919 in Cook's Continental Time-Table (1973) Mar. p. vi/2 Cook's Continental Time-Table...Based on the 24-Hour System.
1947 J. G. Crowther & R. Whiddington Sci. at War 7 A continuous twenty-four-hour watch for strange aircraft started.
1975 C. Egleton Skirmish xvii. 169 He had located a twenty-four hour service station and had had the tyre repaired.
1978 H. Kemelman Thursday Rabbi walked Out (1979) xxix. 141 I got sick. It was this twenty-four-hour bug.
1978 ‘G. Vaughan’ Belgrade Drop i. 11 A clipboard..contained dates, 24-hour clock times, and a short, neatly typed entry against each.
twenty questions n. a parlour game in which one party is allowed twenty questions (answered by either ‘yes’ or ‘no’) to discover the object of the other's thoughts; spec. the name of a popular radio panel game.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > parlour and party games > [noun] > guessing game > specific
what's my thought like?1748
twenty questions1786
charade1826
how, when, and where1843
proverbs1855
hy-spy1876
game1937
I spy (with my little eye)1946
1786 H. More Lett. (1925) 107 Mrs Fielding and I..diverted ourselves with teaching Sir Joshua and Lord Palmerston the play of twenty questions.
1846 R. Bell Life G. Canning x. 255 Canning proposed that they should play at ‘Twenty Questions’. They had never heard of this game.
1930 ‘I. Hay’ & P. G. Wodehouse Baa, Baa, Black Sheep i. ii. 21 All right, a vicarage garden. What are we playing at? Twenty Questions, or something?
1979 E. H. Gombrich Sense of Order iv. 104 This can be done by a simple series of yes or no answers which allows a questioner to locate an item on a given grid as in the game of Twenty Questions.
Twenty-six Counties n. the counties which by the Irish peace agreement of 1921–2 formed the Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland; cf. Six Counties n. at six adj. and n. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > named regions of earth > Europe > British Isles > Ireland > [noun] > Republic
Kathleen Ni Houlihan1841
Irish Free State1921
Saorstát Éireann1922
Twenty-six Counties1922
south1924
1922 Times 6 June 16/2 The requirement that Ulster shall deliberately ‘contract out’ of the arrangements made between Great Britain and the twenty-six Southern counties.
1922 Times 6 June 16/2 If Mr. Griffith is right in claiming all but two per cent. of the population in the twenty-six counties as supporters of the Treaty.
1949 C. Graves Ireland Revisited viii. 102 The Bantrymen have always provided a strong contingent in the Government of the Twenty-six Counties ever since 1922.
1978 D. Murphy Place Apart ii. 33 In Northern Ireland one has a wide choice of names for the rest of the island: the Twenty-six Counties, the Free State, Southern Ireland, the South, Eire and the Republic of Ireland.
1979 W. Nelson Minstrel Code vi. 45 The garage..belonged to a brother-in-law of one of the Sinn Fein leaders in the Twenty-Six Counties... O'Hagan explained that, within the IRA, no one talked of the ‘Irish Republic’ by any term other than this.
twenty-twenty n. (also 20/20) Ophthalmology the Snellen fraction for normal visual acuity, expressed in feet; colloquially used to denote good eyesight; also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > types of vision > [adjective] > normal or correct
orthoscopic1853
twenty-twenty1875
orthoptic1886
orthophoric1888
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > perfection > [adjective] > perfect
finea1300
perfecta1398
crownedc1405
absolute?a1425
obsolute1522
quintessential1551
absolentc1560
fashionate1593
omniperfect1678
quadriform1679
exemplary1709
perfick1771
puffick1858
twenty-twenty1875
copybook1908
perfecto1941
1875 T. Longmore Man. Instructions Army testing Vision (ed. 2) iii. 46 The 20-feet types are read at 20 feet, the 30-feet types at 30 feet; then V. = 20/20 or 30/30, and the acuteness of vision is normal.
1945 L. Shelly Hepcats Jive Talk Dict. 35 Twenty twenty, excellent.
1951 E. F. Tait Textbk. Refraction ii. 16 The visual acuity of healthy corrected eyes may be much better or considerably worse than that represented by the 6/6 or 20/20 standard.
1956 ‘E. McBain’ Cop Hater (1958) iii. 21 Having 20/20 vision without glasses..he..had been appointed a patrolman.
1962 Flight Internat. 81 426/2 Perfect eyesight is denoted as 20/20 vision, and the newest expression in the US air transport business—ruefully coined, we believe, by somebody in Convair—is 20/20 hindsight. Hindsight, of the 20/20 kind, abounds in plenty. But the aviation business is more interested in 20/20 foresight, because it can prevent people from losing a lot of money.
1977 H. Greene FSO-1 ix. 83 We're looking back with twenty-twenty hindsight, now.
1981 P. Turnbull Deep & Crisp & Even ix. 162 He had 20:20 vision... He glimpsed a black shape.
twenty-two carat adj. colloquial = twenty-four carat adj. (b) above; also elliptical as twenty-two.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > foundation in fact, validity > [adjective] > genuine, real
soothc888
soothlyc888
soothfastc1175
germanec1384
truea1398
sickera1400
upright?a1500
uncounterfeita1542
righteous1543
legitimate1551
truepennya1556
arrant1570
uncounterfeited1571
real1573
current1578
genuinal1599
unforged1610
unpretended1611
legitime1614
unabusinga1628
Lubish1632
genuine1639
undissembled1651
undissimulate1652
ingenuine1661
infallacious1677
real live1684
unfalsified1688
unmistaken1694
pukka1776
undissimulated1776
unassumed1818
uncynical1824
Simon Pure1834
sure-enough1837
unsimulated1840
straight-out1848
true blue1852
veritable1862
really (and) truly1864
authentic1868
true-metal1868
kosher1896
twenty-four carat1900
honest to goodness1905
echt1916
dinky-di1918
McCoy1928
twenty-two carat1962
right1969
1962 R. Cook Crust on its Uppers iv. 45 You come out twenty-two carat.
1962 R. Cook Crust on its Uppers iv. 47 I tell you they're absolutely twenty-two.
1974 W. J. Burley Death in Stanley St. ii. 46 I've got a twenty-two carat alibi.
1981 J. Barnett Firing Squad vi. 61 Lady Lowderton was no nutter and her title was twenty-two carat.
Draft additions 1993
Citizens' Band Radio slang. [Shortened < 10–20 in the ‘ten-code’ (see ten adj., n., and adv. Compounds 2).] (One's) location or position. Originally and chiefly U.S.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > [noun] > radio codes and call-signs
call signal1853
call letter1876
call sign1896
ten signal1951
good buddy1956
Zulu1960
ten-code1969
twenty1975
1975 Heavy Duty Trucking May 31/2 Twenty, location.
1975 Heavy Duty Trucking May 33/1 One never hears them giving their ‘Home 20’ (address).
1976 CB Mag. June 114 (caption) My twenty is the super market parking lot.
1981 Times 5 Mar. 16/8 What is your rough twenty?
1985 Citizens' Band May 17/2 Thank you Silver Fox for your excellent work in what is a very important area, with..all the fender-benders that occur around that twenty.
Draft additions 1993
twenty-pence piece n. a cupro-nickel heptagonal coin worth twenty (new) pence, introduced in the U.K. in 1982; also, the corresponding coin in the Republic of Ireland.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > Irish coins > [noun]
harp1543
harp-groat1543
harped groata1549
rose pence1556
smulkinc1571
harp-shilling1591
harper1598
patrick1673
thirteenc1720
fourpence-halfpenny1723
thirteener1762
tenpenny1822
thirteen-penny1828
sun groat1861
twenty-pence piece1981
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > English coins > [noun] > other miscellaneous English coins
baselinga1255
scute1472
basel1577
lundress1695
halfling1819
wire money1837
brabant1840
fifty-pence piece1969
twenty-pence piece1981
1981 Economist 21 Mar. 91/3 The 20 pence piece also finds a predecessor in the old double-florin.
1982 Times 27 Jan. 4/4 The Government shortly hoped to issue a 20 pence piece.
1990 N.Y. Times 27 May v. 17/2 Ireland even features the horse on its currency, on the 20-pence piece.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1916; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
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adj.n.c893