When you talk about the forties, you are referring to numbers between 40 and 49. For example, if you are in your forties, you are aged between 40 and 49. If the temperature is in the forties, the temperature is between 40 and 49 degrees.
He was a big man in his forties, smartly dressed in a suit and tie.
3. plural noun
The forties is the decade between 1940 and 1949.
Steel cans were introduced sometime during the forties.
forty in British English
(ˈfɔːtɪ)
nounWord forms: plural-ties
1.
the cardinal number that is the product of ten and four
See also number (sense 1)
2.
a numeral, 40, XL, etc, representing this number
3.
something representing, represented by, or consisting of 40 units
determiner
4.
a.
amounting to forty
forty thieves
b.
(as pronoun)
there were forty in the herd
Word origin
Old English fēowertig
forty in American English
(ˈfɔrti)
adjective
1.
four times ten
nounWord forms: pluralˈforties
2.
the cardinal number between thirty-nine and forty-one; 40; XL
Idioms:
the forties
Word origin
ME fourti < OE feowertig, akin to Ger vierzig, Goth fidwor tigjus: see four & -ty2
More idioms containing
forty
forty winks
Examples of 'forty' in a sentence
forty
Forty per cent of those affected said it had altered relationships.
The Sun (2016)
Forty six per cent of academics ended up becoming victims, a study found.
The Sun (2016)
I phoned, held on for forty minutes.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
I am in my early forties and don't really drink or have a massive appetite.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Forty per cent said their perfect property had three bedrooms, while 24 per cent favoured four.
The Sun (2016)
Forty three minutes had passed and that own goal was Wales' first try of the match.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
They have thirty or forty hairs in their beards.
Eric Newby A BOOK OF LANDS AND PEOPLES (2003)
Usually appears before age forty in normal or below normal weight people.
Mayes, Adrienne The Dictionary of Nutritional Health (1986)
Forty per cent say that it is a bit of both.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
You remind him of his forty days in the wilderness.
Christianity Today (2000)
What would we do for the next two hours and forty minutes?
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
He got himself elected to a school board at age forty.
Peter F. Drucker THE ESSENTIAL DRUCKER (2001)
Sunday morning audiences lasted until forty minutes past noon.
Kishlansky, Mark A. (editor) Sources of the West: Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 1: From the Beginningto 1715 (1995)
Forty per cent of these are single occupancy.
The Sun (2011)
He was also keen to do it while he was still in his early forties and physically capable of the challenge.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
Fifty forty days in the quarry.
Clerk, Jayana & Siegel, Ruth Modern Literatures of the Non-Western World: Where the Waters Are Born (1995)
Mr. Weston must be between forty and fifty.
Jane Austen Emma (1815)
We first met years ago and our paths crossed again now we're in our early forties.
The Sun (2016)
He died in Rome at the age of forty.
The Times Literary Supplement (2012)
I am in my early forties and an otherwise fit and healthy woman.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
A man in his forties has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
Forty or fifty years ago, such a wish would have been destined to remain merely an unfulfilled fantasy for the average person.
Sedgbeer, Sandra The A-Z of Beauty Treatment (1994)
He uses a wide range of these pastel paints and although I didn't count them there must have been forty or fifty colours.
Improve Your Landscape Painting
In other languages
forty
British English: forty /ˈfɔːtɪ/ NUMBER
Forty is the number 40.
American English: forty
Arabic: أَرْبَعُون
Brazilian Portuguese: quarenta
Chinese: 四十
Croatian: četrdeset
Czech: čtyřicet
Danish: fyrre
Dutch: veertig
European Spanish: cuarenta
Finnish: neljäkymmentä
French: quarante
German: vierzig
Greek: σαράντα
Italian: quaranta
Japanese: 四十
Korean: 40
Norwegian: førti
Polish: czterdzieści
European Portuguese: quarenta
Romanian: patruzeci
Russian: сорок
Latin American Spanish: cuarenta
Swedish: fyrtio
Thai: สี่สิบ
Turkish: kırk
Ukrainian: сорок
Vietnamese: bốn mươi
All related terms of 'forty'
forty-two
a cardinal number, 40 plus 2
forty-five
a gramophone record played at 45 revolutions per minute
forty-niner
a prospector who took part in the California gold rush of 1849
forty winks
a short sleep or rest
the Forty-Five
the unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1715 led by James Francis Edward Stuart
lower forty-eight
the forty-eight conterminous states of the United States
Top 40
the 40 current best-selling recordings
forty-ninth parallel
an informal name for the Canadian border with the USA, which is in part delineated by the parallel line of latitude at 49°N