deuce

 

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deuce

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From Middle English dewes (“two”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French deus, from Latin duo. The word was used by Ford to describe a model of car they made in 1932 due to it being a two-seater.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /djuːs/, /d͡ʒuːs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /dus/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈdjʉs/, /ˈd͡ʒʉs/
• Rhymes: -uːs

deuce (plural deuces)

1. (card games) A card with two pips, one of four in a standard deck of playing cards.

   • 1948 January 1, “Deck of Cards” (track 20), in Famous Country Music Makers‎^[1], performed by Tex Ritter:

     You see, Sir, when I look at the Ace it reminds me that there is but one God. The deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into two parts; the Old and New Testaments. And when I see the trey I think of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

2. (dice games) A side of a die with two spots.
3. (dice games) A cast of dice totalling two.
4. The number two.
   1. (Canada, US, slang) A piece of excrement; number two.
   2. (Canada, slang) A two-year prison sentence.
      • 1988 December 25, Eric Peterson, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 14:

        Bisexual male, 28, doing a deuce in a segregated housing unit due to positive HIV test result, seeks correspondence from both genders.

5. A hand gesture consisting of a raised index and middle finger, a peace sign.
6. (tennis, table tennis, volleyball) A tied game where either player can win by scoring two consecutive points.
7. (baseball) A curveball.
8. A 1932 Ford.
   • 1973 January 5, “Blinded by the Light” (track 1), in Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., performed by Bruce Springsteen:

     And she was blinded by the light/Oh, cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night.

   • 1978, Joe Mayall, “Driving Impression: Reproduction Deuce Hiboy”, in Rod Action, page 26:
   • 2012, Pat Ganahl, Lost Hot Rods II: More Remarkable Stories of How They Were Found, page 62:

     It belonged to “the 1932 guy,” who had four or five Deuces sitting in his yard.

9. (in the plural) Two-barrel (twin choke) carburetors (in the phrase three deuces: an arrangement on a common intake manifold).
10. (restaurants, slang) A table seating two diners.
11. (slang, archaic) A twopence coin.
    • 2010, James Lambie, The Story of Your Life, page 139:

      It was a shame of the chalk-takers to take their fee without even scoring one little mark; but chalk-takers are inexorable and must be paid their twopence. 'Down with your deuces', was the demand after each pair of birds had competed.

• (piece of excrement): See Thesaurus:defecation
• (restaurant) two-top

• (dice) ace, trey, cater, cinque, sice

Playing cards in English · playing cards (layout · text)
ace	deuce, two	three	four	five	six	seven
eight	nine	ten	jack, knave	queen	king	joker

Compare Late Latin dusius (“phantom, specter”); Scottish Gaelic taibhs, taibhse (“apparition, ghost”); or from Old French deus (“God”), from Latin deus (compare deity).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /djuːs/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /duːs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːs

deuce (plural deuces)

1. (epithet) The Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger.

   Alternative form: Deuce

   • 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, Catherine:

     Love is a bodily infirmity […] which breaks out the deuce knows how or why

   • 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:

     To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     "Why, Job, you old son of a gun, where the deuce have we got to now - eh?"

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 65:

     Still bemused by the inexplicable apparition of Podson on that spot, Bradly growled, "How the dooce did you get here?"

2. Synonym of devil (“something awkward or difficult”)

   We had a deuce of a time getting here.

• (etymology) “deuce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• educe