thirteener

Noun

thirteener (plural thirteeners)

1. A child who is thirteen years old.
2. (dated) A member of the 13th Gen; a Generation Xer or Gen-Xer.
   • Boomers played cassettes in their cars and popularized FM radio. Thirteeners love their compact disks. Today's electronics industry is abuzz with talk of the new digital technology that awaits Millennial teenagers.1991, William Strauss, Neil Howe, “The Past as Prologue”, in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, part III (The Future), page...
   • Raise the tough issues and questions that Thirteeners struggle with in the real world. […] The speaker should be transparent about his or her own life struggles and problems. This creates credibility and helps Thirteeners identify their own problems.1995, Kevin Graham Ford, with Jim Denney, “How to Reach Us, Part 2: Process Evangelism”, in Jesus for a New Generation: Putting the Gospel in the Language of Xers, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity...
3. (especially) The last playing card of a suit left after the other twelve have been played.
   • At last they were all chosen [for the watch] but me; and it was the chief mate's next turn to choose; though there could be little choosing in my case since I was a thirteener, and must, whether or not, go over to the next column, like the odd figure you carry along when you do a sum in addition.1849, Herman Melville, “He is Put into the Larboard Watch; Gets Sea-sick; and Relates Some Other of His Experiences”, in Redburn: His First Voyage. […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper &...
   • [T]he following description of a thorough-going College Whist-player is too good to lose. […] How he used to bring out forgotten thirteeners at the end of the hand! And how the majesty of your kings and queens was forced to bow down before his dirty little sixes and sevens!1870 December 23, “Hash”, in The Harvard Advocate, volume X, number VI, Cambridge, Mass.: Students of Harvard College, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 89, column 1
4. A hit for thirteen runs.
   • [A. C.] King once hit a "thirteener" in a match on the school ground. Probably the ball got lost for a minute or two in long grass, or perhaps it was badly overthrown. But, however it happened, there stands the score in the official book, a "13." clearly got in one fell swoop by the hard-hitting...1908 August 29, George A. Wade, “Notable Cricket Feats by Schoolboys”, in The Boy’s Own Paper, volume XXX, number 48 (number 1546 overall), London: “Boy’s Own Paper” Office, […], →OCLC, page 765...
5. (dated) A coin worth thirteenpence, especially an Irish shilling (as contrasted with a British shilling which was worth twelvepence).
   • Upon their return from Ireland, vvhere they collected ſome thirteeners for vvhich they had not given the intrinſic value, ſhillings, they made their appearance at Tenby, in Pembrokeſhire, on a pretended tour of pleaſure.1782, Genuine Memoirs of the Lives of George and Joseph Weston, who were Executed September 3d. 1782. The First for Forgery; the Latter for Shooting at John Davis, and Wounding Him in Cock-Lane: […]...
   • ["]A gintleman once said to me: 'Here, Pat, yer sowl, you look hungry. Here's a thirteener for yez; go and get drunk wid it.' Och, no, your honour, he wasn't an Irish gentleman; it was afther mocking me he was, God save him." […] On my asking the boy if he felt hurt at the mockery, he answered...1851, Henry Mayhew, “Of the Street-seller of Crackers and Detonating Balls”, in London Labour and the London Poor; […], volume I (The London Street-folk. Book the First.), London: [George Woodfall]...
6. A thirteen-syllable line or series of lines in a poem.
   • [T]he peculiar Latin thirteener so popular in the Middle Ages, and best known by the lines attributed to Mapes—Meum est propositum in taberna mori [My purpose is to die in a tavern].1910, George Saintsbury, “Origins of Lines and Stanzas”, in Historical Manual of English Prosody, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, book IV (Auxiliary Apparatus), page 325
   • By the third decade of the eighteenth century, the syllabic line that really threatened to stay was an uncouth thing of thirteen syllables (counting the obligative feminine terminal), with a caesura after the seventh syllable: […] The order of the stresses in the thirteener went in jumps and jolts...1964, Vladimir Nabokov, “The Origination of Metrical Verse in Russia”, in Notes on Prosody […] (Bollingen Series; LXXIIa), New York, N.Y.: Bollingen Foundation, →OCLC, page 35
7. (US) A mountain rising to more than 13,000 feet (about 4,000 metres) but less than 14,000 feet above mean sea level.
   • There are six summits in Colorado above thirteen thousand feet named "Grizzly." Four of them are in the highest two hundred summits. This one was once rated a Fourteener, but new surveys demoted it so that it is now the highest Thirteener.1992, Mike Garratt, Bob Martin, “Grizzly Peak (13,988 feet), Garfield Peak (13,780 feet)”, in Colorado’s High Thirteeners (A Climbing & Hiking Guide), 3rd edition, Boulder, Colo.: Johnson Books...
   • Few who venture into this region know that the area is a superb place to go after thirteener ski descents.2020, Ben Conners, Brian Miller, “Cronin Peak—Northeast Face”, in Climbing and Skiing Colorado’s Mountains: Over 50 Select Ski Descents, 2nd edition, Lanham, Md.: Falcon Guides, Rowman & Littlefield...