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two-forty on a plank road. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
two-forty on a plank road, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
two-forty on a plank road in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Phrase
two-forty on a plank road
- (Canada, US, slang, obsolete) A very fast speed.
1852, G. Henry Howard Paul, Dashes of American humour, page 206:The passion of young New York is for horses — fast horses — two-forty on a plank road.
1862, Frank Moore, The Rebellion Record, a Diary of American Events, page 474:[…] some that remained, running to and fro, with white rags suspended on broom-handles, and an old darky had a bleached salt-sack tied to a limb of a tree, waving it at the rate of two-forty on a plank-road.
- (Canada, US, slang, obsolete, by extension) The quality of being "fast", i.e. immoral in one's habits.
1867, The Broadway Annual, page 596:In Canada, where trotting is also a very favourite amusement, and whence came the famous trotting mare Flora Temple, a very “fast” young lady is generally spoken of as “two forty on a plank road.”
References
- John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary