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tenpence to the shilling. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
tenpence to the shilling, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
tenpence to the shilling in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
The British shilling was worth twelve pence, so tenpence would be a deficient exchange.
Phrase
tenpence to the shilling
- (UK, slang, dated) Mentally deficient.
1909, Edward R. Hartley, Train Talks, page 4:I knew that chap; but he never was more nor tenpence to the shilling. He was one of the men, we say, who fell out of his cradle and knocked his head.
1951, Crichton Porteous, Wild Acres, page 203:He felt no curiosity about news or daily events, and was getting to be looked on as 'tenpence to the shilling' in the head.
2011, Ruth Hamilton, A Whisper To The Living:Whenever he did manage to engineer a meeting she always treated him as if he was only tenpence to the shilling, a few bricks short of a load, as if he needed another brain cell to qualify as a plant.