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Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant noun: a United States fifty-dollar bill.

ulysses s. grant: a United States fifty-dollar bill
Image: Parhamr, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Ulysses S. Grant (plural Ulysses S. Grants)

  1. (US, slang) A United States fifty-dollar bill.
    • They respond instantly to the faintest rustling in the covert of a sheaf of Ulysses S. Grants, or the homely, rustic tinkle of a wheelbarrow full of rubies being jounced along over a nightclub floor.1957, The Monthly Record, volume 61, page 22
    • She peeped into the unsealed envelope and saw a stack of Ulysses S. Grants.2005, Ombonia Waits, Closed Circles, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 79

Synonyms of Ulysses S. Grant

Forms of Ulysses S. Grant

pluralUlysses S. Grants

Origin of Ulysses S. Grant

From the portrait of Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) featured on it. Further etymology The name itself of Grant (who was born Hiram Ulysses Grant) is an alteration by Representative Thomas L. Hamer; Grant’s father wrote to Hamer requesting that he nominate Grant to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, which Hamer did in spring 1839. Grant was accepted on July 1. Unfamiliar with Grant, Hamer altered his name, so Grant was enlisted under the name “U. S. Grant”. Since the initials “U. S.” also stood for “Uncle Sam”, he became known among army colleagues as “Sam”. One source states Hamer thought the “S.” stood for Simpson, Grant’s mother’s maiden name, hence some sources list his full name as “Ulysses Simpson Grant”. According to Grant, the “S.” did not stand for anything. Upon graduation from the academy he adopted the name “Ulysses S. Grant”. Another version of the story states that Grant inverted his first and middle names to register at West Point as “Ulysses Hiram Grant” as he thought reporting to the academy with a trunk that carried the initials H. U. G. would subject him to teasing and ridicule. Upon finding that Hamer had nominated him as “Ulysses S....

Questions about Ulysses S. Grant

What does Ulysses S. Grant mean?
Ulysses S. Grant means a United States fifty-dollar bill.
What part of speech is Ulysses S. Grant?
Ulysses S. Grant is a noun.
What is the plural of Ulysses S. Grant?
The plural of Ulysses S. Grant is Ulysses S. Grants.

Words near Ulysses S. Grant in the dictionary

  1. Ulyatts
  2. Ulyssean
  3. Ulysses
  4. Ulysses Grant
  5. Ulysses Grants
  6. Ulysses S. Grant
  7. Ulysses S. Grants
  8. Ulysses syndrome
  9. Ulyssian
  10. ulzzang
  11. Ulúa

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ulysses S. Grant (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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