deuce
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Deuce
Etymology 1
From Middle English dewes (“two”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French deus, from Latin duo. The word was used by Ford to describe a model of car they made in 1932 due to it being a two-seater.
Pronunciation
Noun
deuce (plural deuces)
- (card games) A card with two pips, one of four in a standard deck of playing cards.
- 1948 January 1, “Deck of Cards” (track 20), in Famous Country Music Makers, performed by Tex Ritter:
- You see, Sir, when I look at the Ace it reminds me that there is but one God. The deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into two parts; the Old and New Testaments. And when I see the trey I think of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
- (dice games) A side of a die with two spots.
- (dice games) A cast of dice totalling two.
- The number two.
- (Canada, US, slang) A piece of excrement; number two.
- (Canada, slang) A two-year prison sentence.
- 1988 December 25, Eric Peterson, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 14:
- Bisexual male, 28, doing a deuce in a segregated housing unit due to positive HIV test result, seeks correspondence from both genders.
- A hand gesture consisting of a raised index and middle finger, a peace sign.
- (tennis, table tennis, volleyball) A tied game where either player can win by scoring two consecutive points.
- (baseball) A curveball.
- A 1932 Ford.
- 1973 January 5, “Blinded by the Light” (track 1), in Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., performed by Bruce Springsteen:
- And she was blinded by the light/Oh, cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night.
- 1978, Joe Mayall, “Driving Impression: Reproduction Deuce Hiboy”, in Rod Action, page 26:
- 2012, Pat Ganahl, Lost Hot Rods II: More Remarkable Stories of How They Were Found, page 62:
- It belonged to “the 1932 guy,” who had four or five Deuces sitting in his yard.
- (in the plural) Two-barrel (twin choke) carburetors (in the phrase three deuces: an arrangement on a common intake manifold).
- (restaurants, slang) A table seating two diners.
- (slang, archaic) A twopence coin.
- 2010, James Lambie, The Story of Your Life, page 139:
- It was a shame of the chalk-takers to take their fee without even scoring one little mark; but chalk-takers are inexorable and must be paid their twopence. 'Down with your deuces', was the demand after each pair of birds had competed.
Synonyms
- (piece of excrement): See Thesaurus:defecation
- (restaurant) two-top
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Translations
playing card
|
side of a dice with two spots
cast of dice totalling two
number two
|
tennis: tie, both players able to win by scoring two additional points
|
baseball: curveball
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
| Playing cards in English · playing cards (layout · text) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| ace | deuce, two | three | four | five | six | seven |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| eight | nine | ten | jack, knave | queen | king | joker |
Etymology 2
Compare Late Latin dusius (“phantom, specter”); Scottish Gaelic taibhs, taibhse (“apparition, ghost”); or from Old French deus (“God”), from Latin deus (compare deity).
Pronunciation
Noun
deuce (plural deuces)
- (epithet) The Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger.
- Alternative form: Deuce
- 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, Catherine:
- Love is a bodily infirmity […] which breaks out the deuce knows how or why
- 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:
- To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him.
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- "Why, Job, you old son of a gun, where the deuce have we got to now - eh?"
- Synonym of devil (“something awkward or difficult”)
- We had a deuce of a time getting here.
Derived terms
Translations
Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger
|
References
- (etymology) “deuce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
