Word.ws English Dictionary

look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence

look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence verb: to look very disappointed.

Verb

look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence (third-person singular simple present looks as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence, present participle looking as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence, simple past and past participle looked as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence)

  1. (UK, idiomatic) To look very disappointed.

Forms of look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence

third-person singular presentlooks as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence
present participlelooking as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence
past participlelooked as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence
pastlooked as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence

Origin of look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence

In pre-decimal British money, a sixpence was worth half a shilling.

Questions about look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence

What does look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence mean?
Look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence means to look very disappointed.
What part of speech is look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence?
Look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence is a verb.
What is the past tense of look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence?
The past tense of look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence is looked as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence.

Words near look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence in the dictionary

  1. look alike
  2. look alive
  3. look and feel
  4. look and feels
  5. look around
  6. look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence
  7. look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards
  8. look as if one has lost a shilling and found sixpence
  9. look askance
  10. look at
  11. look at it this way

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence (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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Cite this entry: “look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/look_as_if_one_had_lost_a_shilling_and_found_sixpence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.