Word.ws English Dictionary

penny gaff

penny gaff noun: an entertainment in 19th-century England consisting of short theatrical displays such as dancing, singing, clowning, and plays.

Noun

penny gaff (plural penny gaffs)

  1. (historical) An entertainment in 19th-century England consisting of short theatrical displays such as dancing, singing, clowning, and plays.
    • My dear sirs, did you actually imagine that one could not follow every clumsy move you made, with Joolby's low comedy tramp and the other two stealing in like a couple of hired assassins in a penny gaff melodrama?1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
    • More sophisticated were the penny gaffes where for a id^([sic]) entrance fee entertainment was provided by hairy men, hairless dogs, gorillas, Aztecs and giants.2015, Ed Glinert, East End Chronicles, Penguin UK, →ISBN
    Synonyms:
    dukey

Synonyms of penny gaff

Forms of penny gaff

pluralpenny gaffs
alternative formpenny-gaff
alternative formpenny gaffe

Questions about penny gaff

What does penny gaff mean?
Penny gaff means an entertainment in 19th-century England consisting of short theatrical displays such as dancing, singing, clowning, and plays.
What part of speech is penny gaff?
Penny gaff is a noun.
What is the plural of penny gaff?
The plural of penny gaff is penny gaffs.

Words near penny gaff in the dictionary

  1. penny falls
  2. penny farthing
  3. penny farthings
  4. penny for them
  5. penny for your thoughts
  6. penny gaff
  7. penny gaffe
  8. penny gaffes
  9. penny gaffs
  10. penny grass
  11. penny in the fusebox

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: penny gaff (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.

Last updated:

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