Twopence (or Tuppence). See Donkey and Penny.
Twopenny, subs. (old).—1. Beer;
sold at 2d. a quart: cf. four-penny,
etc.
1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, ii. 69. When the Lowlanders want to drink a chearupping cup, they go to the public-house called the change-house, and call for a chopin of twopenny, which is a thin yeasty beverage made of malt, not quite so strong as the table-beer of England.
1834. Southey, Doctor, cxlii. There are many things in these kingdoms which are greatly undervalued; strong beer for example in the cider countries, and cider in the countries of good strong beer; bottled twopenny in South Britain, sprats and herrings by the rich.
1884. Dowell, Taxes in England, iv. 122. [Pale ale] was principally consumed by the gentry; the victualler sold it at 4d. the quart, under the name of twopenny.
2. (common).—The head: also tuppenny. 'Tuck in your tuppenny' = (1) an injunction to 'make a back' at leap-frog; and (2) to desist.
c. 1888. Music Hall Song, 'Lord Mayor's Coachman.' 'Why, you're going into Newgate Street,' the Lord Mayor bawls, But John said 'Tuck your twopenny in—I'm going around St. Paul's.'
3. (London).—An intermediary between pawnbroker and client; a professional pawner: the usual fee being twopence.
Adj. (old).—Mean; of little value: as only costing twopence: also (modern) twopenny-halfpenny.
c. 1485. Paston Letters, 144. [A grave-cloth] not worth 11d.
1872. Eliot, Middlemarch, i. iii. He thinks a whole world of which my thought is but a poor twopenny mirror.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 July. The moderate twopenny-halfpenny Redistribution Bill which Mr. Gladstone intends to introduce.
Twopenny Damn, subs. phr. (old).—1.
A variant of rap, straw,
curse, tinker's curse (or
damn), and many others. Tradition
asserts that Wellington once
said he did not care a twopenny
damn what became of the ashes
of Napoleon Buonaparte.
2. (literary).—The Twopenny Damn = The St. James's Gazette: on account of its strong language concerning Mr. Gladstone and the 'latter-day Radicals.'
Twopenny-hop, subs. phr. (? obsolete).—A
cheap dance. [Hotten:
The price of admission was
formerly twopence: the clog hornpipe,
the pipe dance, flash jigs,
and hornpipes in fetters, à la
Jack Sheppard, were the favourite
movements, all entered into with
great spirit.]
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. The girl is invited to 'raffles,' and treated to twopenny hops and half-pints of beer.
Twopenny-rope, subs. phr.
(tramps').—A lodging-house:
one in which the charge is (or
was) twopence: sacking stretched
on ropes served as a shakedown.
To have twopenn'orth of
rope = to 'doss down' in such a
place: Fr. coucher à la corde.
1837. Dickens, Pickwick. 'The twopenny rope, sir,' replied Mr. Weller, 'is just a cheap lodgin'-house. . . . At six o'clock every mornin', they lets go the ropes at one end, and down falls all the lodgers.'
Twopenny-ward, subs. phr. (old).—Part
of a prison was formerly
so called.
1605. Jonson, Eastward Ho, v. 1. He lies i' the twopenny ward.
Two-pipe Scattergun, subs. phr.
(American).—A double-barrelled
rifle.
