Dictionary

ninepence en · NOUN

Etymology

From nine + pence.

Meanings

1. (UK, countable, obsolete, uncountable) A former British silver coin, worth nine old pennies.
   • His wits were sent him for a token, \ But in the carriage crack'd and broken. \ Like commendation nine-pence, crookt \ With—to and from my love—it lookt. 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
2. (UK, countable, obsolete, uncountable) Nine old pennies.
   • I had sold it to her that morning for ninepence; the real price was a shilling, but it was somewhat shopworn. 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 137:
3. (New-England, countable, obsolete, uncountable) A Spanish real, valued at twelve and a half cents.

Forms

Deriveds

nice as ninepence · commendation ninepence · neat as ninepence · right as ninepence