twopenny-halfpenny
English
Alternative forms
- two-penny-half-penny
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˌtʌpni ˈheɪpni/
Adjective
twopenny-halfpenny (not comparable)
- Petty, insignificant.
- 1902, Joseph Conrad, chapter I, in Heart of Darkness:
- Good heavens! and I was going to take charge of a two-penny-half-penny river-steamboat with a penny whistle attached!
- 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter L, in The Moon and Sixpence. A Novel, London: William Heinemann, OCLC 563525353; The Moon and Sixpence, 1st American edition, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers by arrangement with George H. Doran Company, 1919, OCLC 365836, page 264:
- Poor devil, he's gone to the dogs altogether. He's got some twopenny-halfpenny job in the medical at Alexandria—sanitary officer or something like that. I'm told he lives with an ugly old Greek woman and has half a dozen scrofulous kids.
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