Word.ws English Dictionary

twelve-nine

twelve-nine is the alternative form of 12-9.

Meaning of 12-9

Noun

12-9 (plural 12-9s)

  1. (New-York-City, euphemistic) An instance of a collision between a person and a subway train, such as a fall into the tracks; used by train conductors in the New York City Subway.
    • Whatever the reason, he found it easy to keep his emotions in check the first couple of times that he had a 12-9. Twelve-nine, in transit lingo, is a radio alert that someone has landed under a subway train.2000 June 13, Clyde Haberman, “NYC; The Numbers Motormen Dread: 12-9”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 May 2015

Forms of twelve-nine

pluraltwelve-nines

Questions about twelve-nine

What is twelve-nine the alternative form of?
Twelve-nine is the alternative form of 12-9.

Words near twelve-nine in the dictionary

  1. twelve stepper
  2. twelve steppers
  3. twelve-bar blues
  4. twelve-inch
  5. twelve-inches
  6. twelve-nine
  7. twelve-nines
  8. twelve-note
  9. twelve-ounce curls
  10. twelve-penny nail
  11. twelve-penny nails

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: twelve-nine (page history and authors); 12-9 (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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