twenty-four
[twenty A. 1 b.]
1. A sheet folded into 24 leaves; a form of type for printing a sheet to be so folded (quot. 1683); a book in which the sheets are thus folded. (Always in pl.; usually in phr. in twenty-fours.)
| 1673 Term Catal. 6 May, Valerii Maximi dictorum factorumque memorabilium Libri IX. In Twenty-fours. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxiv. ¶15 Any Form Imposed like Twelves, as Twenty fours. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. xv. (Roxb.) 23/2 Other bookes..whether they be..octavo's, sixteens or twentyfoures. 1715 M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 11 Bound in Twelves, Sixteens, or Twenty⁓fours. 1771 Luckombe Hist. Print. 419 A Sheet of Twenty⁓fours, with Two Signatures. Ibid. 420 A Half Sheet of Long Twenty-fours. |
2. A period of 24 hours; a day. nonce-use.
| 1735 Berkeley Querist §125 To pass the twenty-fours with tolerable ease. |
See also twenty A. 2 d, B. 3, C.