sixpence
(ˈsɪkspəns)
Also Sc. 8– saxpence.
[f. six a. + pence.]
1. A sum of money equal in value to six pennies.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 36 Wheþer þis be charite to curse a man for sexe pans. c 1440 Alph. Tales 273, I sall pray my moder to gif me vjd & þat I sall giff you. 1486 Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 6 For the vnder Clerk vj d for euer. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iv. ii. 20 Thus hath he lost sixepence a day, during his life; he could not haue scaped sixpence a day. 1641 Hakewill Libertie of Subject 70 There shoulde be paid..six pence of the pound upon all other Merchandizes. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-cr. i. (1721) 44 In hopes of Sixpence and their Dinners. 1752 Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 444 Every person in England is computed by some to spend six-pence a day. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. i. 83 That Bible, bought by sixpence weekly saved. 1846 Dickens Cricket on Hearth ii. 65 As near the real thing as sixpenn'orth of halfpence is to sixpence. |
| Comb. 1780 J. Woodforde Diary 20 June (1924) I. 286 Gave on going—O.I.O. For which you have 6d worth of anything at the Bar. 1828 Scott Jrnl. 22 April, An extra sixpence worth of snuff. 1875 A. R. Hope My Schoolboy Fr. 76 We bought sixpenceworth of chocolate. |
2. a. Hist. A British silver (subsequently cupro-nickel) coin worth six pennies.
| 1598 [see mill n.1 12]. 1659 [see milled ppl. a. 2]. c 1675 R. Cromwell in Eng. Hist. Rev. XIII. 93 As much as will lye upon a sixpence. 1707 Sibbald Scotland (1739) i. 24 The Size of the late Coin'd English Sixpence. 1758 Phil. Trans. L. 551, I found the peritonæum..to be of the thickness of a six-pence. 1800 E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. I. 294 Lady Bell protested she had not a six-pence in her pocket. 1833 T. Hook Parson's Dau. i. xi, I have no assurance..that Emma Lovell cares one single sixpence about me. 1886 Pascoe London of To-day iv. (ed. 3) 65 The ‘Zoo’ on Monday,..when a sixpence opens the gate to the neediest. |
b. Applied to Spanish coins. In later use
U.S.| 1563 Child Marriages 58 Well she remembres he send her a Spanish vj{supd}. 1818 H. B. Fearon Sk. Amer. 13 A beggar came in, and was relieved with a Spanish silver piece called a six⁓pence. 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), Sixpence, the New York name for the Spanish half-real. 1891 S. M. Welch Home Hist. 169 It was common, particularly in New England, to call a sixpence or a half dime, a fip. |
c. transf. Used familiarly as a nickname or designation.
| 1600 Nashe Summers Last Will & Test. 857 Young sixpence, the best page his master hath, playes a little, and retires. 1899 Westcott David Harum vii, Ann and Jeff are just the same old sixpences as ever. |
d. colloq. (See first
quots.)
| 1772 R. Graves Spir. Quixote (1783) I. 225 Beginning to spit six-pences (as his saying was), he gave hints to Mr. Wildgoose to stop at the first public-house. 1799 Beddoes Contrib. Phys. & Med. Knowl. 419 Expectoration of a little frothy mucus, such as are vulgarly called sixpences. 1889 A. G. Murdoch Sc. Readings Ser. iii. 60 See if ye can bring us in half-a-mutchkin, for I'm spittin' white sixpences. |