Word.ws English Dictionary

deuce

/djuːs//dus/

deuce noun: a card with two pips, one of four in a standard deck of playing cards.

Noun (1)

deuce (plural deuces)

  1. A card with two pips, one of four in a standard deck of playing cards.
    • 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.1948 January 1, “Deck of Cards” (track 20), in Famous Country Music Makers, performed by Tex Ritter
    Synonyms:
    two
  2. A side of a die with two spots.
  3. A cast of dice totalling two.
  4. (Canada, US, slang) A bowel movement (the event or the result).
  5. (Canada, slang) A two-year prison sentence.
    • Bisexual male, 28, doing a deuce in a segregated housing unit due to positive HIV test result, seeks correspondence from both genders.1988 December 25, Eric Peterson, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 14
  6. A hand gesture consisting of a raised index and middle finger, a peace sign.
  7. (table tennis) A tied game where either player can win by scoring two consecutive points.
  8. A curveball.
  9. A 1932 Ford.
    • And she was blinded by the light/Oh, cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night.1973 January 5, “Blinded by the Light” (track 1), in Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., performed by Bruce Springsteen
    • It belonged to “the 1932 guy,” who had four or five Deuces sitting in his yard.2012, Pat Ganahl, Lost Hot Rods II: More Remarkable Stories of How They Were Found, page 62
  10. (in plural) Two-barrel (twin choke) carburetors (in the phrase three deuces: an arrangement on a common intake manifold).
  11. (slang, restaurants) A table seating two diners.
    Synonyms:
    two-top
  12. (slang) The amount of two dollars or two pounds.
    • Lend me a deuce until next week, will ya?1934, Collier's, volume 93, page 24
  13. (archaic, slang) A twopence coin.
    • 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.2010, James Lambie, The Story of Your Life, page 139
  14. (euphemistic, slang) Douche.

Noun (2)

deuce (plural deuces)

  1. (epithet) The Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger.
    • Love is a bodily infirmity […] which breaks out the deuce knows how or why1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, Catherine
    • To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him.1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
  2. Synonym of devil (“something awkward or difficult”).
    • We had a deuce of a time getting here.
    Synonyms:
    devil

Proper noun capitalized: Deuce

the Deuce

  1. Alternative letter-case form of deuce (“the Devil”).
    • “I should not allow any one to inconvenience me, if I could hinder it—walk in!” The “walk in,” was uttered with closed teeth and expressed the sentiment, “Go to the Deuce!”1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter I, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 2
    • “How in the Deuce’s name can they set up correctly from copy like that?” demanded he, in a fury.[1880?], [Arthur Hamilton], The Confessions of a Scribbler. Containing Among Other Curious Autobiographical Matter, His Experiences of the Printers, Publishers, Reviewers, and Readers of a Modern...

deuce meaning in Hindi and Malay

deuce in Hindi

playing card
दुक्की dukkī

deuce in Malay

playing card
dius

Examples of deuce in a sentence

  • I don't know what the deuce you think you're doing.
  • The deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into two parts; the Old and New Testaments.
  • The deuces are wild, he would announce before a pitch.

All 17 example sentences with deuce

Synonyms of deuce

18 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of deuce

Forms of deuce

pluraldeuces

Plural of deuce: deuces

Origin of deuce

From Middle English dewes (“two”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French deus, from Latin duo. The word was used by Ford Motor Co. in 1932 to describe a two-seater car model.

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

Words formed from deuce

Phrases with deuce

Words that rhyme with deuce

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about deuce

What does deuce mean?
Deuce means a card with two pips, one of four in a standard deck of playing cards.
What is deuce in Hindi?
Deuce in Hindi is दुक्की (dukkī). See Deuce meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is deuce?
Deuce can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce deuce?
Deuce is pronounced /djuːs/.
What is the plural of deuce?
The plural of deuce is deuces.

Words near deuce in the dictionary

  1. deubiquitylates
  2. deubiquitylating
  3. deubiquitylation
  4. Deucaledon Ocean
  5. Deucalion
  6. deuce
  7. deuce coupe
  8. deuce coupes
  9. deuce court
  10. deuce courts
  11. deuce less

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deuce (page history and authors); Deuce (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-deuce.ogg.

Cite this entry: “deuce.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deuce. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.