number six

plural number sixes

1. ball gamesA defensive midfielder.

   The number six adds additional defensive cover, balance, screening and protection just ahead of the central defence.

   2022 February 12, “Number six position in football”, in Premier League

2. ball gamesThe batsman who bats sixth.
3. UKobsoleteslangSynonym of Newgate knocker (“a lock of hair worn twisted back toward the ear”).

   1 more example

   Bessy knew it was called “Calverton's School” — and though many who attended it were big men who ought to have known their letters better, yet others were only youths, and a few quite little boys, who wore their hair in “number sixes” at the temples, when law had left them hair sufficient for such ornamentation.

   1861, Frederick William Robinson, No Church, page 252

   Synonyms: Newgate knocker

4. NigeriacolloquialOne’s brain or common sense.