at six and seven

Meanings

prepositional phrase

obsoleteObsolete form of at sixes and sevens.
The Goddeſs vvou'd no longer vvait; / But riſing from her Chair of State, / Left all belovv at ſix and ſeven, / Harneſs'd her Doves, and flevv to Heav'n.
1726, [Jonathan Swift], Cadenus and Vanessa. A Poem, London: […] J. Roberts […], →OCLC, page 37
2 more examples
[T]he poore, although they ſee that one hath great aboundance of corne, that an other hath great plentie of vvine: yet ought they not vvithſtanding to bear their penurie patiently, and not to runne and ſcratch for other mens goods, as if they vvere left at ſixe and ſeuen.
1583, Iohn Caluin [i.e., John Calvin], “On Thursday the XXX. of Ianuarie, 1556. The CXXXVJ. Sermon which is the Seuenth vpon the Three and Twentieth Chapter, and the First vpon the XXIIII.”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The Sermons of M. Iohn Caluin vpon the Fifth Booke of Moses Called Deuteronomie: […], London: […] Henry Middleton for Thomas Woodcocke, →OCLC, page 833, column 1
Yet if his majesty our sovereign lord / Should of his own accord / Friendly himself invite, / And say "I'll be your guest to morrow night." / How should we stir ourselves, call and command / All hands to work! Let no man idle stand. / […] / For 'tis a duteous thing / To show all honour to an earthly king, / And after all our travail and our cost, / So he be pleas'd, to think no labour lost. / But at the coming of the King of Heaven / All's set at six and seven: / We wallow in our sin, / Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn. / We entertain him always like a stranger, / And as at first still lodge him in the manger.
1624, Francis Pilkington, “From Christ Church MS. K. 3. 43–5. (Music by Thomas Ford.)”, in A[rthur] H[enry] Bullen, editor, More Lyrics from the Song-books of the Elizabethan Age, London: John C. Nimmo, […], published 1888, →OCLC, pages 145–146