deuce
EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English dewes (“two”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French deus, from Latin duo.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
deuce (plural deuces)
- (card games) A card with two pips, one of four in a standard deck of playing cards.
- 1948 January 1, “Deck of Cards”, in Famous Country Music Makers[1], performed by Tex Ritter:
- You see, Sir, when I look at the Ace it reminds me that there is but one God. The deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into two parts; the Old and New Testaments. And when I see the trey I think of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
- (dice games) A side of a die with two spots.
- (dice games) A cast of dice totalling two.
- The number two.
- A hand gesture consisting of a raised index and middle fingers, a peace sign.
- (tennis) A tied game where either player can win by scoring two consecutive points.
- (baseball) A curveball.
- A '32 Ford.
- 1978, Mayall, Joe. "Driving Impression: Reproduction Deuce Hiboy", in Rod Action, p.26
- 2012, Pat Ganahl, Lost Hot Rods II: More Remarkable Stories of How They Were Found, page 62:
- It belonged to “the 1932 guy,” who had four or five Deuces sitting in his yard.
- (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
- (in the plural) 2-barrel (twin choke) carburetors (in the phrase 3 deuces: an arrangement on a common intake manifold).
- (restaurants, slang) A table seating two diners.
SynonymsEdit
- (piece of excrement): See Thesaurus:defecation
- (restaurant) two-top
Coordinate termsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
playing card
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side of a dice with two spots
cast of dice totalling two
number two
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tennis: tie, both players able to win by scoring two additional points
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baseball: curveball
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See alsoEdit
| Playing cards in English · playing cards (layout · text) | ||||||
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| ace | deuce, two | three | four | five | six | seven |
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| eight | nine | ten | jack, knave | queen | king | joker |
Etymology 2Edit
Compare Late Latin dusius (“phantom, specter”); Scottish Gaelic taibhs, taibhse (“apparition, ghost”); or from Old French deus (“God”), from Latin deus (compare deity).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
deuce (plural deuces)
- (epithet) The Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger.
- 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, Catherine:
- Love is a bodily infirmity […] which breaks out the deuce knows how or why
- 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:
- To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him.
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- "Why, Job, you old son of a gun, where the deuce have we got to now - eh?"
- 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 65:
- Still bemused by the inexplicable apparition of Podson on that spot, Bradly growled, "How the dooce did you get here?"
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger
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ReferencesEdit
- (etymology) “deuce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.