deuce

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English[edit]

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Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English dewes (“two”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French deus, from Latin duo.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /djuːs/, /d͡ʒuːs/
  • (US) IPA(key): /duːs/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːs

Noun[edit]

deuce (plural deuces)

  1. (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[1], 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.
  2. (dice games) A side of a die with two spots.
  3. (dice games) A cast of dice totalling two.
  4. The number two.
    1. (Canada, US, slang) A piece of excrement.
    2. (Canada, slang) A two-year prison sentence.
  5. A hand gesture consisting of a raised index and middle fingers, a peace sign.
  6. (tennis) A tied game where either player can win by scoring two consecutive points.
  7. (baseball) A curveball.
  8. A '32 Ford.
    • 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.
    (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
  9. (in the plural) 2-barrel (twin choke) carburetors (in the phrase 3 deuces: an arrangement on a common intake manifold).
  10. (restaurants, slang) A table seating two diners.
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Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also[edit]
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[edit]

Compare Late Latin dusius (“phantom, specter”); Scottish Gaelic taibhs, taibhse (“apparition, ghost”); or from Old French deus (“God”), from Latin deus (compare deity).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

deuce (plural deuces)

  1. (epithet) The Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger.
    • 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?"
    • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 65:
      Still bemused by the inexplicable apparition of Podson on that spot, Bradly growled, "How the dooce did you get here?"
  2. Synonym of devil (“something awkward or difficult”)
    We had a deuce of a time getting here.
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