deuce

plural deuces

1. card gamesA card with two pips, one of four in a standard deck of playing cards.

   You see, Sir, when I look at the Ace it reminds me that there is but one God. The deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into two parts; the Old and New Testaments. And when I see the trey I think of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

   1948 January 1, “Deck of Cards” (track 20), in Famous Country Music Makers, performed by Tex Ritter

   Synonyms: two

2. diceA side of a die with two spots.
3. diceA cast of dice totalling two.
4. The number two.
   1. CanadaUSslangA bowel movement (the event or the result).

      Synonyms: number two, big jobs, bowel movement, cack, call of nature, crap, crapping, defecating

   2. CanadaslangA two-year prison sentence.

      Bisexual male, 28, doing a deuce in a segregated housing unit due to positive HIV test result, seeks correspondence from both genders.

      1988 December 25, Eric Peterson, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 14

5. A hand gesture consisting of a raised index and middle finger, a peace sign.
6. table tennisball gamesA tied game where either player can win by scoring two consecutive points.
7. ball gamesA curveball.
8. A 1932 Ford.

   It belonged to “the 1932 guy,” who had four or five Deuces sitting in his yard.

   2012, Pat Ganahl, Lost Hot Rods II: More Remarkable Stories of How They Were Found, page 62

   1 more example

   And she was blinded by the light/Oh, cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night.

   1973 January 5, “Blinded by the Light” (track 1), in Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., performed by Bruce Springsteen

9. in pluralTwo-barrel (twin choke) carburetors (in the phrase three deuces: an arrangement on a common intake manifold).
10. slangrestaurantsA table seating two diners.

    Synonyms: two-top

11. slangThe amount of two dollars or two pounds.

    Lend me a deuce until next week, will ya?

    1934, Collier's, volume 93, page 24

12. archaicslangA twopence coin.

    It was a shame of the chalk-takers to take their fee without even scoring one little mark; but chalk-takers are inexorable and must be paid their twopence. 'Down with your deuces', was the demand after each pair of birds had competed.

    2010, James Lambie, The Story of Your Life, page 139

13. euphemisticslangDouche.

plural deuces

1. epithetThe Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger.

   "Why, Job, you old son of a gun, where the deuce have we got to now - eh?"

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   Love is a bodily infirmity […] which breaks out the deuce knows how or why

   1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, Catherine

   To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him.

   1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

   Still bemused by the inexplicable apparition of Podson on that spot, Bradly growled, "How the dooce did you get here?"

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 65

2. Synonym of devil (“something awkward or difficult”).

   We had a deuce of a time getting here.

   Synonyms: devil

1. Alternative letter-case form of deuce (“the Devil”).

   “How in the Deuce’s name can they set up correctly from copy like that?” demanded he, in a fury.

   [1880?], [Arthur Hamilton], The Confessions of a Scribbler. Containing Among Other Curious Autobiographical Matter, His Experiences of the Printers, Publishers, Reviewers, and Readers of a Modern Book., Merthyr Tydfil: […] H. W. Southey, →OCLC, page 74

   2 more examples

   “I should not allow any one to inconvenience me, if I could hinder it—walk in!” The “walk in,” was uttered with closed teeth and expressed the sentiment, “Go to the Deuce!”

   1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter I, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 2

   THE Dickens Christmas has gone to the Deuce. Dickens probably did as much for the humanity of his time as most men, and certainly did more for Christmas than any man living or dead. Yet the Christmas he created has been allowed to become moribund. Its days are numbered, and the numbers are only the Christmas numbers. The ghost of his Christmas stalks through their pages.

   1906 December 22, F. J. M., “Looking Christmas in the Face”, in The Speaker: The Liberal Review, London, →OCLC, page 348, column 2