Word.ws English Dictionary

two by fours

two by fours is the plural of two by four.

Meaning of two by four

Noun

two by four (plural two by fours)

  1. (Canada, US) A length of sawn wood of cross section nominally 2 inches by 4 inches (actual dimensions 1½ × 3½ in modern use), most often employed as structural framing lumber (dimensional lumber).
    • Well, Moses stood on the Red Sea shore, And smote the water with a two by four1959, “Mary Don't You Weep”, performed by Nat King Cole
  2. (Canada, US, dated) A small, modest building.
    • He'll plan a two by four / But not for me.1930, George, Ira Gershwin, “But Not for Me”
  3. (slang) Synonym of Tijuana Bible (“kind of pornographic comic book”).
    • […] the movie plot of Superman II, in which Superman and Lois Lane work up to a sexual liaison (which was seen before 1960 only in “two by fours” and similar pornographic comic strips.).2008, Barry Schwartz, Abraham Lincoln in the Post-Heroic Era, page 354
    Synonyms:
    Tijuana Bible

Questions about two by fours

What is two by fours the plural of?
Two by fours is the plural of two by four.

Words near two by fours in the dictionary

  1. two bob
  2. two bob each way
  3. Two Borders
  4. two brain cells to rub together
  5. two by four
  6. two by fours
  7. two by two
  8. two can play at that game
  9. two can play at this game
  10. two can play that game
  11. two can play this game

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: two by fours (page history and authors); two by four (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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Cite this entry: “two by fours.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/two_by_fours. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.