two bob
English
Alternative forms
- two-bob
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
- (Britain, Australia, obsolete) Two shillings; a florin.
- (Australia, slang) A 20-cent coin.
- (idiomatic, Britain, Australia, often attributive) A trivially small value.
- 1999, Barry Maitland, The Chalon Heads: A Kathy and Brock Mystery, page 181:
- Less flashy in its post-modernism than the MI6 building, more sober in its brick-framed glass curtain walling, Sally Malone would have pointed out that this was the two-bob side of the block, as against the half-crown riverbank site of the other building.
- 1975 September 4, Monitor: Nova Honda brightens the night sky, New Scientist, page 515,
- Judging from the spectrum and the brightness Dr Stickland “wouldn′t give two bob either way”.
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Usage notes
The use of two bob for a 20-cent coin derives from the equivalence of two shillings for 20 cents for the purpose of conversion during decimalisation (in 1966); since then, the term has slowly dropped out of usage and it is seldom used today.
Derived terms
- bent as a two bob note
- get one's two bob's worth
- give two bob each way
- have one's two bob's worth
- silly as a two bob watch
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