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twenty (iou) and RMS (iou)


twenty (iou)



twenty adjective & noun (cardinal numeral).

A. adjective. One more than nineteen (a cardinal numeral represented by 20 in Arabic numerals, xx, XX in roman). OE.
twenty questions a parlour game in which a participant has twenty questions (answered by either 'yes' or 'no') to identify a chosen object.
Goldsmith Feversham..hanged up above twenty prisoners. J. Tey Miss Tuff had worn peter-pan collars..for twenty years. R. Perry The tape would automatically self-destruct after twenty minutes.
b. noun.
Twenty persons or things identified contextually, as years of age, points, runs, etc., in a game, chances (in giving odds), minutes, inches, pence, etc. OE.
free, white, and over twenty-one: see FREE adjective. top twenty: see TOP adjective.
New Yorker At twenty she was taking care..of a tubercular half sister. D. Fry In English..about twenty are the vowel phonemes.
One more than nineteen as an abstract number; the symbols or figures representing this (20 in Arabic numerals, xx, XX in roman). OE.
B. Mather To count up to twenty.
The twentieth of a set or series with numbered members, the one designated twenty, (usu. number twenty, or with specification, as book twenty, chapter twenty, etc.); a size etc. denoted by twenty, a garment etc. of such a size, (also size twenty). E16.
A set of twenty; a thing having a set of twenty as an essential or distinguishing feature; spec. (a) in pl., twenty leaves to the sheet in a printed book; (b) a twenty-pound note; a twenty-dollar bill. M17.
Daily Telegraph The bank..loaded fivers, tenners, and twenties into the wrong magazines.
In pl. The numbers from 20 to 29 inclusive, esp. denoting years of a century or units of a scale of temperature; one's years of life between the ages of 20 and 29. L19.
roaring twenties the decade of the 1920s (with ref. to its postwar buoyancy).
L. Twining A temperature in the twenties for some days. R. Fraser By Maria's twenties, Penzance had become a social centre in Cornwall.
The location or position of a citizens' band Radio operator. slang. L20.
Comb.: Forming compound numerals (cardinal or ordinal) with numerals below ten, as twenty-nine (29), twenty-first (21st), etc., and (cardinals) with multiples of a hundred, as 220 (read two hundred and twenty, US also two hundred twenty), etc. With nouns + -ER1 forming nouns with the sense 'something (identified contextually) being of or having twenty s', as twenty-seater etc. Special combs., as twenty-eight a small yellow-collared Australian parrot, Barnardius zonarius, whose call resembles the words 'twenty-eight', esp. one of the race from SW Australia; twenty-firster colloq. (a) a twenty-first birthday (until 1970 in the UK a person's coming-of-age); a party to celebrate this; (b) a twenty-first birthday present; twenty-five (a) Hockey & (formerly) Rugby Football the line drawn across the ground twenty-five yards from each goal; the space enclosed by this; (b) an Irish card-game in which each trick counts five and the game is twenty-five; twenty-four (a) in pl., twenty-four leaves to the sheet in a printed book; (b) a plant-pot of which twenty-four are formed from one cast of clay; (c) twenty-four carat, (of gold) pure; colloq. thoroughgoing, unalloyed; genuine, trustworthy; (d) twenty-four-hour, lasting or operating for twenty-four hours; of or pertaining to a system of time reckoning whereby the hours of the day are numbered from one to twenty-four; (e) twenty-four seven (usu. 24-7) colloq. (orig. US), twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; twentyfourmo the size of a book having twenty-four leaves to the sheet; twenty-one = VINGT-ET-UN; twenty-pence piece a cupro-nickel heptagonal coin worth twenty (new) pence, current in the UK from 1982; a similar coin of the Republic of Ireland; Twenty-six Counties the counties constituting the Republic of Ireland (cf. the Six Counties s.v. SIX adjective); twenty-SOMETHING; twenty-twenty, 20/20 Ophthalmology the Snellen fraction for normal visual acuity, expressed in feet; colloq. used attrib. to denote good eyesight; twenty-two a twenty-two calibre rifle.
twentyfold adjective & adverb (a) adjective twenty times as great or as numerous; having twenty parts, divisions, elements, or units; (b) adverb to twenty times the number or quantity: OE.
twentyish adjective (a) about twenty (in age, measurements, etc.); (b) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the 1920s; resembling or recalling the fashions etc. of the 1920s: E20.
twentymo noun a size of book or paper in which each leaf is one-twentieth of a standard printing-sheet M19.

RMS (iou)



RMS abbreviation1.
Royal Mail Steamer (also Ship).