Meanings
nounannas in the rupee pl (plural only)
- BritishIndiaarchaiccolloquialderogatoryoffensivepluralplural onlyUsed with a number to indicate the degree of an individual's mixed racial descent.
And in the end, all knew that it was true, Rosalie was only four annas in the rupee.
2007, Indu Sundaresan, The Splendor of Silence, page 981 more example
By the end of the second day he was so dark that he looked to be at least eight annas in the rupee […]
1930, The Royal Engineers Journal, volume 44, page 285
Origin
A rupee was worth 16 annas, so eight annas represented a half-and-half mixture, and so on.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
annas in the rupee. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/annas%20in%20the%20rupee
MLA
“annas in the rupee.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/annas%20in%20the%20rupee. Accessed November 5, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “annas in the rupee,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/annas%20in%20the%20rupee.
Source: annas in the rupee on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.