Word.ws English Dictionary

two-forty on a plank road

two-forty on a plank road phrase: a very fast speed.

Phrase

two-forty on a plank road

  1. (Canada, US, obsolete, slang) A very fast speed.
    • The passion of young New York is for horses — fast horses — two-forty on a plank road.1852, G. Henry Howard Paul, Dashes of American humour, page 206
    • […] some that remained, running to and fro, with white rags suspended on broom-handles, and an old darky had a bleached salt-sack tied to a limb of a tree, waving it at the rate of two-forty on a plank-road.1862, Frank Moore, The Rebellion Record, a Diary of American Events, page 474
  2. (Canada, US, broadly, obsolete, slang) The quality of being "fast", i.e. immoral in one's habits.
    • In Canada, where trotting is also a very favourite amusement, and whence came the famous trotting mare Flora Temple, a very “fast” young lady is generally spoken of as “two forty on a plank road.”1867, The Broadway Annual, page 596

Questions about two-forty on a plank road

What does two-forty on a plank road mean?
Two-forty on a plank road means a very fast speed.
What part of speech is two-forty on a plank road?
Two-forty on a plank road is a phrase.

Words near two-forty on a plank road in the dictionary

  1. two-fold
  2. two-footed
  3. two-form
  4. two-forms
  5. two-forty
  6. two-forty on a plank road
  7. two-four
  8. two-four time
  9. two-four times
  10. two-fours
  11. two-hand sword

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: two-forty on a plank road (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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