a. [f. FOUR a. + PENNY.]
1. That costs or is valued at four pence. Fourpenny ale, ale sold at four pence a quart; fourpenny bit or piece, a silver coin of the value of four pence; so fourpenny-halfpenny piece.
1597. 1st Pt. Return fr. Parnass., II. i. 517. Let us truste honest, simple plaine felowes, such as ourselves, that weare foure-pennie garters, and winter shoos that have kept the cobler’s companie.
1678. Lond. Gaz., No. 1348/4. Three pieces of Four-peny broad black taffaty Ribon.
1691. Locke, Lower. Interest, Wks. 1727, II. 97. Since Market and Retail Trade requires less Divisions than Sixpences, a sufficient Quantity of Four-penny, Four penny half-penny, and Five penny Pieces should be coined.
1756. Monitor, I. No. 25. 220. How often do we see these fourpenny boarders, in red coats, turning the family out of their beds; breaking their furniture; wasting their candles; coals and beer; and devouring their victuals without mercy?
1868. Yates, The Rock Ahead, III. III. i. 21. A more comic suggestion that he ‘looked as if he’d lost a fourpenny-piece,’ was received with tumultuous applause.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., I. ii. 61. Having made Burton unhappy with this theory, he set sedulously to work to intoxicate himself with fourpenny ale. I fear he failed.
1890. Pall Mall G., 27 Nov., 2/3. The once familiar fourpenny bits have ceased from circulation.
b. quasi-sb. A fourpenny piece.
1883. Stevenson, Treasure Isl., I. i. He had taken me aside one day, and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every month if I would only keep my ‘weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg,’ and let him know the moment he appeared.
2. Fourpenny nail [see PENNY a.]: a nail 11/2 in. long, of which 4 lbs. go to the ‘thousand’ (i.e., 10 nominal hundreds or 1120).
1481. Nottingham Rec., II. 320. Et de dimidio centum de forpeny nayl.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 244. Another sort are four Penny, and six Penny Nails.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 135. Nails of sorts are, 4, 6, 8, 10, 24, 30, and 40-penny nails, all of different lengths, and used for nailing board, &c.
