Deuce
[djuːs]
Definition
(noun.) one of the four playing cards in a deck that have two spots.
(noun.) a tie in tennis or table tennis that requires winning two successive points to win the game.
Typist: Mabel--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Two; a card or a die with two spots; as, the deuce of hearts.
(n.) A condition of the score beginning whenever each side has won three strokes in the same game (also reckoned "40 all"), and reverted to as often as a tie is made until one of the sides secures two successive strokes following a tie or deuce, which decides the game.
(n.) The devil; a demon.
Edited by Bessie
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Two (said of cards or dice with two spots).[2]. [Low.] Devil.
Editor: Mamie
Definition
n. a card or die with two spots: (lawn tennis) a term denoting that each side has gained three points ('forty all').—n. Deuce′-ace a throw of two dice one of which turns up deuce and the other ace.
n. the devil—in exclamatory phrases.—adj. Deuced (dū′sed or dūst) devilish: excessive.—adv. confoundedly.
Edited by Bryan
Unserious Contents or Definition
An honest card, in fact the only one that is never known to beat tray.
Typed by Ewing
Examples
- It's a hundred and ten pounds, the deuce take it! George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- How the deuce, my dear, would you have me behave respectfully to such a fool as your brother? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- But the deuce a bit would they sit down. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- It's only a hundred-and-seventy, and the deuce is in it if we can't raise that. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- No; what the deuce would you call her for? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- What the deuce is it all about? Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- What the deuce can she find in that spooney of a Pitt Crawley? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- What the deuce! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- What the deuce is he knocking at his own door for? Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- Why the deuce can't they come together! Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- He passed, and I went on; a few steps, and I turned: a sliding sound and an exclamation of What the deuce is to do now? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- And where the deuce did you pick him up? Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Even you cast me off over there, and I felt just ready to go to the deuce, he began apologetically. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- If it were the deuce's own scribble, and yo' axed me to read in it for yo'r sake, and th' oud gentleman's, I'd do it. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- What the deuce have you done with yourself this last month? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- I say, how soon at the appearance of these grand court cards, did those poor little neglected deuces sink down to the bottom of the pack. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
Edited by Ivan