threepenny bit

plural threepenny bits · alternative threepenny-bit · alternative three-penny bit

1. historicalA former (pre-decimalisation) British or Irish coin worth three old pennies.

   All day long he worked, cutting out pennies and shillings and half-crowns and threepenny-bits.

   1934, P[amela] L[yndon] Travers, “East Wind”, in Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins; 1), London: Gerald Howe Ltd […], →OCLC, pages 3–4

   Synonyms: threepence, thruppence

2. CockneyslangA woman's breast; a tit.

   All these skinny modern chicks with their perky threepenny bits do nothing for me.

   1983, Robert Drewe, The Bodysurfers, Penguin, published 2009, page 86