four-and-nine

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From the price of four shillings and ninepence, at which a once noted advertising hat-maker sold his hats.

Noun[edit]

four-and-nine (plural four-and-nines)

  1. (UK, slang, obsolete) A cheap hat.
    • 1850, William Mark Clark, Clark's Orphean Warbler (page 424): Four and Nine Tile (song)
      Around me young and old, / Take this advice of mine, / When you want a hat, / Don't buy a four and nine.

References[edit]

  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
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