a. (sb.)
1. Of the value or price of threepence. a. Threepenny nail, a nail of the size that originally cost threepence a hundred. (See PENNY 10.)
1429–30. Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 73. Also for dc iij peny nayll, j d ob.
1481, 1484. [see PENNY 10].
1486. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 16. ccc iij peny nailes ixd.
1494–5. in Swayne, Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896), 43. De clauis vocatis threpenynayle precii centene iij d.
b. Threepenny bit (BIT sb.2 8 c), piece = THREEPENCE 2; also fig. (in reference to the size of the coin) something very small. Also ellipt. threepenny.
1729. Evelyn’s Kal. Hort., 199. A Leaf as broad as a Three-penny Piece.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 311. Pieces of … bone, varying in size from that of a threepenny-piece to half-a-crown.
1884. W. Black, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 21/2. A small threepenny-bit of a creature.
1892. A. Maclaren, Paul’s Prayers, etc. (1893), 289. Only a threepenny bit and not a talent.
1905. Daily Chron., 8 Nov., 6/7. Threepennies, indeed, are as characteristic of the provinces as the farthing is peculiar to London.
c. Costing or involving an ontlay of threepence.
1698. Christ Exalted, 55. No more shaken than a pair of Three-penny Bellows can shake down the Monument.
1712–3. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 17 Feb. I play but threepenny ombre.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., viii. III. 126. The letter which had arrived by the threepenny post from Hackney.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 25 April, 7/3. The 7.3 from Hoe-street, Walthamstow, commonly known as ‘the last threepenny train’ (largely used by workmen).
d. transf. Of or pertaining to threepence or to something worth threepence; able or willing to pay threepence.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Navy Land Ships, Wks. I. 79/1. Some Men (being borne vnder a threepeny planet) can neither by paines … or any industry be worth a groat.
1895. Daily News, 13 Dec., 7/1. Consigned to the threepenny boxes of the second-hand booksellers.
1898. Daily Chron., 14 Oct., 3/4. What in magazine parlance may be called … the ‘threepenny’ public.
1899. J. Pensell, in Fortn. Rev., LXV. 113. It is useless to discuss any matter with the threepenny populace.
2. fig. as a disparaging epithet: Of little worth; trifling, paltry, cheap, worthless.
1613. Rowland, Four Knaves (Percy Soc.), 47. Like threepenie watch-men … Each with a rustie browne-bill in his hand.
1651. C. Cartwright, Cert. Relig., I. 76. Such men … were permitted to excommunicate for a threepeny matter.
1823. Scott, Peveril, xxvii. Down to that three-penny baggage, Mistress Nelly.
