threepenny bit

See also: threepenny-bit

English

Alternative forms

• threepenny-bit

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈθɹʌpəni bɪt/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

threepenny bit (plural threepenny bits)

1. (historical) Former (pre-decimalisation) British and Irish coins worth three old pennies.
   • 1934, P[amela] L[yndon] Travers, “East Wind”, in Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins; 1), London: Gerald Howe Ltd […], →OCLC, pages 3–4:

     All day long he worked, cutting out pennies and shillings and half-crowns and threepenny-bits.

2. (Cockney rhyming slang) A woman's breast; a tit.
   • 1983, Robert Drewe, The Bodysurfers, Penguin, published 2009, page 86:

     All these skinny modern chicks with their perky threepenny bits do nothing for me.

Synonyms

• threepence, thruppence