tuppence

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

tuppence (countable and uncountable, plural tuppences)

1. (British, informal, dated) Two pence (in pre- or post-decimalisation currency).

   Milk has gone up to tuppence ha'penny a pint.

   • 1909, W. W. Jacobs, "Prize Money," in Sailor's Knots,

     In less than four days twenty-three men had paid their tuppences to Henery, who 'ad been made the seckitary.

   • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, 1993 edition, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 11:

     ‘Miss Brindle rich?’ said Aunt Maggie. ‘Bless you, she hasn’t tuppence to rub together.’

2. (British, idiomatic) Opinion.
3. (British, slang, usually childish) Vulva or vagina.
   • 2012, Richard Johns, Diagnosis of the Soul: The Long Road to the Beginning:

     The lady confided to the nurse helping her up off the examination couch, and told her “He put his hand up me funnel and made me tuppence bleed!”

Derived terms

• not worth tuppence
• tuppence worth

See also

• tuppenny
• threepence