Word.ws English Dictionary

tenpence to the shilling

tenpence to the shilling phrase: mentally deficient.

Phrase

tenpence to the shilling

  1. (UK, dated, slang) Mentally deficient.
    • I knew that chap; but he never was more nor tenpence to the shilling. He was one of the men, we say, who fell out of his cradle and knocked his head.1909, Edward R. Hartley, Train Talks, page 4
    • He felt no curiosity about news or daily events, and was getting to be looked on as 'tenpence to the shilling' in the head.1951, Crichton Porteous, Wild Acres, page 203

Origin of tenpence to the shilling

The British shilling was worth twelve pence, so tenpence would be a deficient exchange.

Questions about tenpence to the shilling

What does tenpence to the shilling mean?
Tenpence to the shilling means mentally deficient.
What part of speech is tenpence to the shilling?
Tenpence to the shilling is a phrase.

Words near tenpence to the shilling in the dictionary

  1. tenour
  2. tenours
  3. tenovaginitis
  4. tenoxicam
  5. tenpence
  6. tenpence to the shilling
  7. tenpences
  8. tenpennies
  9. tenpenny
  10. tenpenny nail
  11. tenpenny nails

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tenpence to the shilling (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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