eighteen, a. and n.
(eɪˈtiːn, ˈeɪtiːn)
Forms: 1 ehta-t{yacu}ne, 2 ehte-tyna, 3 æh-, ah-, ehte-, eyȝtetene, 4–5 eyȝ-, eyghtene, Sc. auh-, auchtene, 6 eightene, 6– eighteen.
[OE. e(a)htat{yacu}ne, -téne, corresponds to OFris. achtatîne, OS. ahtotian, ahtetehan (Du. achttien), OHG. ahtozehan (MHG. ahtzehen, mod.G. achtzehn), ON. áttján (átján, Sw. adertån, Da. atten), Goth. *ahtau-ta{iacu}hun; f. OTeut. *ahtau, ahtô, eight + *tehun ten; for the divergent Eng. form of the second element, see -teen.]
1. The cardinal number next after seventeen; represented by the symbols 18 or xviii.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke xiii. 4 Swa þa ehta-tyne [1160 Hatton ehte-tyna] ofer þa feoll se stypel on siloa. 1205 Lay. 18014 Ohtere cnihten ahtene [c 1275 ehtetene] þusen. 1297 R. Glouc. (1810) 407 In þe ᵹer of grace a þousend & four score & eyȝtetene. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 48 Þe date of Criste a þousand & mo bi auhtene. 1398 Trevisa Barth De P.R. xix. cxxvi. (1495) 928 Syxe and twelue makyth eyghtene. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. (Mätz), Hundyr byschapis and awchtene. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 137 Eyȝtene [P. eyghtene], octodecim. 1559 Mirr. Mag., Dk. Suffolk xi. 3 For eightene monthes we dyd conclude a truce. a 1641 Suckling Fragm. Aurea (1646) 35 For your eighteen pence you sit The Lord and Judge of all fresh wit. 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) II. 356 He appointed Sandoval to command..eight hundred and eighteen foot soldiers. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxvi, About eighteen years since..it chanced, etc. |
2. a. quasi-n. = eighteen-pounder (see 3).
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple xvii, We took a seat upon the long eighteen. |
b. n. pl. A sheet of eighteen pages; a book in 18mo.
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing II. 55 When a Twelves, Eighteens, etc. is wrought. 1795 Hull Advertiser 19 Dec. 4/3 A purposely manufactured wove paper, in Octodecimo or Eighteens. 1808 C. Stower Printers' Gram. 199 A plan for imposing a half sheet of eighteens. 1839 T. C. Hansard Print. & Type-Founding 168 Works done in sixteens, eighteens, twenty-fours, or thirty-twos. 1937 E. J. Labarre Dict. Paper 139 Eighteenmo, or eighteens, are other terms for decimo-octavo. |
3. a. Comb. eighteen-headed,
eighteen-hole(s (golf-course),
eighteen-tailed,
adjs.;
eighteen-tonner;
eighteen-knot a., (a vessel) capable of going eighteen knots in an hour;
eighteen-penny a., that is worth or costs eighteen-pence; also
quasi-n.;
eighteen-pounder, a gun throwing a shot that weighs eighteen pounds. (
Eighteen pence is often written as one word, with or without hyphen.)
| 1766 Sharp in Phil. Trans. LVII. 84 This has been used many years in St. Bartholomew's hospital, instead of the old *eighteen-headed bandage. |
| 1907 Westm. Gaz. 21 Sept. 9/1 The opening of Matlock's new *eighteen-holes golf course. 1944 Mod. Lang. Notes Dec. 515, 18-hole golf course. |
| 1884 Pall Mall G. 13 Nov. 4/2 Exposed to any hostile Power with an *18-knot cruiser. |
| 1817 Cobbett Pol. Reg. 8 Feb. 168 Having an *eighteen-penny-piece put into his hand. 1859 Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 14 Simpson's..eighteenpenny fish ordinary. 1883 H. R. Haweis in Gentl. Mag. July 47, I proceeded to elicit from the red eighteenpenny [fiddle] all it had to give. |
| 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. V. x. 443 The vessel of war suffered severely from two *eighteen-pounders on the Jersey shore. |
| 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xxviii. (1804) 191 We dressed the wound, and applied the *eighteen-tailed bandage. |
| 1888 (title) To Gibraltar and back in an *eighteen-tonner. |
b. As in
eighteen-twenties, the years between 1819 and 1830.
| 1906 Daily Chron. 16 Oct. 4/4 A collection of poems by Frances Ridley Havergal, belonging to the eighteen-seventies. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 24 Mar. 2/1 She has abundance of ‘sensibility’, as that word was understood in the eighteen-twenties. 1924 Galsworthy White Monkey ii. ix, The Hotch-potch Club went back to the eighteen-sixties. 1929 S. Ertz Galaxy x, The eighteen-nineties came, with their revival of interest in literature and painting. 1929 (title) The eighteen-seventies: essays by Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature. Ed. H. G. Granville-Barker. 1930 (title) The eighteen-eighties. Ed. W. de la Mare. |
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eighteen-wheeler n. orig. N. Amer. an articulated lorry with eighteen wheels.
| 1934 N.Y. Times 15 Apr. xx. 7/1 Convoys carrying pipes to the east set out daily with seven great *eighteen-wheeler lorries in each convoy in charge of an officer. 1975 News Jrnl. (Mansfield, Ohio) 6 Oct. 4/5 Occasionally, young punks use their eighteen-wheelers like weapons. But the seasoned truckers don't. 2002 D. B. Mason Men with Brooms ii. iii. 179 An eighteen-wheeler with a big cab-over sat quietly under the floodlights of a nearby parking lot, looking for all the world like a dozing buffalo. |