Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The cardinal number equal to 3 + 1.
- noun The fourth in a set or sequence.
- noun Something having four parts, units, or members, such as a musical quartet or a four-cylinder engine.
- idiom (all fours) All four limbs of an animal or person.
from The Century Dictionary.
- One more than three; twice two: a cardinal numeral: as, four legs; four wheels.
- noun A number, twice two or the sum of three and one; the number of the fingers of one hand, without the thumb.
- noun A symbol representing this number, as 4, IV, or iv.
- noun A four-oared boat; the crew of a four-oared boat.
- noun A playing-card with four pips or spots on it.
- noun In dice or dominoes, the face of a piece showing four spots.
- noun plural In the game of poker, a hand containing four cards of the same denomination, and ranking between a full and a straight flush.
- noun A team of four horses harnessed together to draw a coach or other vehicle: as, a coach and four; a well-matched four.
- noun plural Same as
fourings . - noun In cricket, a boundary; also, a ball hit by the batsman, which reaches the boundary, thus scoring four runs. See
fourer .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective One more than three; twice two.
- noun The sum of four units; four units or objects.
- noun A symbol representing four units, as 4 or iv.
- noun Four things of the same kind, esp. four horses.
- noun See
All fours , in the Vocabulary.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun cardinal A
numerical value equal to4 ; the number afterthree and beforefive ;two plustwo . This many dots (••••) - noun Describing a set or group with four components.
- noun countable The
digit orfigure 4; an occurrence thereof. - noun countable Anything measuring four
units , aslength . - noun A person who is fours
years old. - noun cricket, countable An
event whereby abatsman hits a ball which bounces on the ground before passing over a boundary in the air, resulting in an award of 4runs for the batting team. If the ball does not bounce before passing over the boundary, asix is awarded instead. - noun rowing Quadruple
sculls . - noun obsolete A four-
pennyworth of spirits.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a playing card or domino or die whose upward face shows four pips
- adjective being one more than three
- noun the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The players during this drawing and discarding are gradually improving their hands, and matching them into four sets and an extra tile, a set being _three of a kind_, _four of a kind_, or _three in a sequence_.
Pung Chow The Game of a Hundred Intelligences. Also known as Mah-Diao, Mah-Jong, Mah-Cheuk, Mah-Juck and Pe-Ling Lew Lysle Harr
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I never hear of an inexperienced buyer in search of a rifle without being reminded of the purchaser of a telescope, who, on asking the optician, among a multitude of other questions, whether he would be able to discern an object through it four miles off, received for reply, 'See an object _four_ miles off, Sir?
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 Various
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The owner or master of the establishment was squatted upon the dry sandy ground, with three or four young children sprawling round him, while his _four_ wives were occupied with their respective duties.
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The four Corners of the Table must be furnished with _four Holes_, and exactly in the middle of each side _one Hole_, and these Holes must be hung at the bottoms with _Nets_, Which Holes are named _Hazards_, because if either by Skill or Chance one Gamester strikes anothers Ball into these Holes, or Hazards, as we will now call them, he wins One; the
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The number of lines used in the staff has varied greatly since the time of Guido, there having been all the way from four to fifteen at various times and in various places, (_four_ being the standard number for a long time).
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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Such a Nootka word, for instance, as when, as they say, he had been absent for four days might be expected to embody at least three radical elements corresponding to the concepts of absent, four, and day.
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Now in order to establish a position in a space of four dimensions it would be necessary to measure in _four_ mutually perpendicular directions.
Four-Dimensional Vistas Claude Fayette Bragdon 1906
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The four actors of whom I shall attempt to tell, you something -- Burbage, Betterton, Garrick, and Kean -- were the _four_ greatest champions, in their respective times, on the stage of Nature in contradistinction to Artificiality.
The Drama Henry Brodribb Irving 1894
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Lucrezia swinging in a hammock in the centre of a large room, the four corners of which are occupied by four bedsteads containing four children, in the production of whom not exactly _four_ fathers, as they ought for perfect symmetry, but as a compromise _three_, have assisted.
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century George Saintsbury 1889
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In the invasion of Mexico, the United States formed four separate armies, moving on _four distinct lines of operation: _ 1st.
tbtabby commented on the word four
Means "oven" in French.
July 13, 2009