eighty, a. (n.)
(ˈeɪtɪ)
Forms: 1 (hund)eahtatiᵹ, -æhtatiᵹ, -ehtatiᵹ, -eahtiᵹ, 3–4 eiȝteti, 5 eyȝty, 6 eyghty, eightie, 6– eighty.
[OE. hundeahtatiᵹ, f. hund- (prefix to the denary numerals: see hundred) + eahta eight + -tiᵹ:—OTeut. *tigiwiz plur. of *tegu-z decade (see -ty).]
1. The cardinal number equal to eight tens, represented by 80 or lxxx. Also with omission of n. and in comb. with numbers below ten (ordinal and cardinal), as eighty-one, eighty-first, etc.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter lxxxix. [xc.] 10 In mæhtum hundæhtatiᵹes ᵹera. ― O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) Introd., Gaius Iulius Romana Kasero mid hund ehtatiᵹum scipum ᵹesohte Brytene. 1297 R. Glouc. (1810) 478 Endleue hundred ȝer of grace, & eiȝteti & thre. 1375 Barbour Bruce xviii. 349 Auchty thousand he wes and ma. 1382 Wyclif Isa. xxxvii. 36 The aungil of the Lord smot in the tentus of Assiries an hundrid and fyue and eiȝteti thousend. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 137 Eyȝty, octoginta. 1530 Palsgr. 367 Octante, eyghty, lxxx. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iv. i. 96 Eightie odde yeeres of sorrow haue I seene. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. 187 Mr. Fox fore-told the ruine and destruction of the Invincible (so called) Armado in the eighty eight. 1771 Raper in Phil. Trans. LXI. 533 When the Romans began to coin gold, it did not exceed the eighty-fourth part of their Pound. 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) II. 217 In the year one thousand four hundred and eighty-five. 1872 Morley Voltaire (1886) 47 Aspasia, now over eighty. |
2. quasi-n. a. The age of eighty years. b. the eighties: the years between eighty and ninety in a particular century.
| 1835 E. Elliott Poems 221 He stoop'd no more, like toothless eighty. 1883 Seeley Expansion of Eng. 260 Adam Smith, writing in the eighties. |
c. Eighty acres of land. U.S.
| 1842 C. M. Kirkland Forest Life II. 207 Happy he whose far reaching ‘eighties’ enclose a sugar-bush. 1872 Amer. Naturalist VI. 77 The whole surface of the plains is sere and brown save some ‘eighties’ or larger tracts that are fenced. 1936 M. H. Bradley Five-Minute Girl v. 74 So his ax had set to work on the maples and hemlocks in his north eighty. |
3. Comb., as in eighty-gun ship, eighty-ton (gun).
| 1747 J. Lind Lett. Navy i. (1757) 30, I have known some gentlemen captains of eighty gun ships, who..were not old enough to be lieutenants. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) Hh ij b, The 80-gun ships..begin to grow out of repute. 1874 Porcupine 18 Apr. 37/1 The construction of an 80-ton gun at Woolwich is stated to be decided upon. 1880 Encycl. Brit. XI. 292/2 In the 80-ton gun powder cubes of 1½ in. edge are used. 1888 A. C. Gunter Mr. Potter of Texas iii, That was the first eighty-ton gun fired in war. |