sixpence

English

British sixpence coins struck in 1787.

Etymology

From six +‎ pence.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪks.pəns/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

sixpence (countable and uncountable, plural sixpences)

1. (obsolete, British, uncountable) The value of six old pence; half of a shilling; or one-fortieth of a pound sterling.

   Finest apples, sixpence each.

   • 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXIX, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 221:

     When the ferry-boat with her wild freight pushed into the stream, nobody cared sixpence for the wasted time but the captain of the craft.

2. (historical) A former British coin worth sixpence, first minted in 1551.

   Have you got two sixpences for a shilling?

   • 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Talisman, page 55:

     "One penny, sir!" He was roused at once from his abstraction; for it was a question to himself whether he had even that in his pocket. Sixpence was, however, discovered; he paid the toll, and passed on.

   • 1994, Neil Gaiman, Mr. Punch:

     I remember playing card games with my grandfather. Games of memory, not of skill. If I won, he gave me sixpence; if he won, he didn't. We would play until I was bored, or until he ran out of sixpences.

Synonyms

• sixpenny bit
• tanner, lord, tester, tizzy, hog, pig, sow's baby (all slang and dated, archaic, or obsolete)

Derived terms

• look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence
• look as if one has lost a shilling and found sixpence
• mill-sixpence
• on a sixpence
• upon a sixpence

 

Related terms

• twopence, tuppence
• threepence
• fourpence
• fivepence
• eightpence
• tenpence