Word.ws English Dictionary

two-to-one

two-to-one noun: the pawnbroker's sign of three balls.

Noun

two-to-one

  1. (UK, obsolete, slang) The pawnbroker's sign of three balls.
    • “A pawnbroker!” cried Dick, with a loud laugh; whereupon the two-to-one lady blushed up to the eyes and whispered to her friend, “How could they know us?”1819, Felix Mac Donough, The Hermit in London; or, Sketches of English Manners, page 182
    • A song I'm going to sing you, / And presently I'll bring you, / Where your conscience I hope won't sting you, / — At the sign of the Two-to-one!1877, John Diprose, New standard song book and reciter, page 194

Questions about two-to-one

What does two-to-one mean?
Two-to-one means the pawnbroker's sign of three balls.
What part of speech is two-to-one?
Two-to-one is a noun.

Words near two-to-one in the dictionary

  1. two-timed
  2. two-timer
  3. two-timers
  4. two-times
  5. two-timing
  6. two-to-one
  7. two-toed sloth
  8. two-toed sloths
  9. two-tone
  10. two-tongued
  11. two-top

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: two-to-one (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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