subs. (old).—1.  Beer sold at 6s. a barrel; small beer: cf. FOUR-HALF and (modern) SIX ALE.

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  1631.  BRATHWAITE, Clitus’s Whimzies, 97. How this threede-bare philosopher shrugges, shiffs, and shuffles for a cuppe of SIX.

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  1633.  ROWLEY, A Match at Midnight, i. 1. Look if he be not drunk! The very sight of him makes one long for a cup of SIX.

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  2.  (Oxford University).—A privy.

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  AT SIXES AND SEVENS, phr. (old).—In confusion; at loggerheads (GROSE): also TO SET ON SEVEN = to confuse, to disarray.

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  c. 1340.  The Avowynge of King Arther, etc., 64 [Camden Society, Three Early English Metrical Romances, 89].

        Alle in sundur hit [a tun] brast,
  IN SIX OR IN SEUYN.

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  1369.  CHAUCER, Troilus and Criseyde, iv. 622.

        Lat not this wreched wo thyne herte gnawe,
But manly, SET the worlde ON SIX AND SEVENE.

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  [?].  Morte Arthure [E.E.T.S.], 2131.

        Thus he SETTEZ ON SEVENE
  with his sekyre knyghttez: …
And thus at the joyenyge
  the geauntez are dystroyede.

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  1596.  NASHE, Have with You to Saffron-Walden [Works, iii. 38]. Caring for all other things else, sets his owne estate AT SIXE AND SEAUEN.

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  1597.  SHAKESPEARE, Richard II., ii. 2.

        But time will not permit:—All is uneven,
And everything is left AT SIX AND SEVEN.

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  1598.  FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Asbaraglio … at SIXE AND SEAUEN, in vaine.

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  1678.  COTTON, Scarronides, or Virgil Travestie [Works (1725), 73].

        But, like a Dame of Wits bereaven,
Let all Things go AT SIX AND SEVEN.

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  d. 1704.  T. BROWN, Works, i. 68.

        May thy Affairs (for so I wish by Heavens)
All the World o’er AT SIXES lie AND SEVENS.

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  1768.  GOLDSMITH, The Good-Natured Man, i. Haven’t I reason to be out of my senses, when I see things going AT SIXES AND SEVENS?

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  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 481.

        Whilst things went on AT SIX AND SEVEN,
Jove smok’d a serious pipe in heaven.

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  1781.  The Gentleman’s Magazine, li. 367. I found every thing AT SIXES AND SEVENS, as the old woman left her house.

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  1790.  BURNEY, Diary (1876), iii. 240. All my workmen in the country are AT SIXES AND SEVENS, and in want of my directions.

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  1809.  MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 432. The affairs of the treasurer … are all AT SIXES AND SEVENS.

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  1816.  SCOTT, The Antiquary, xxii. All goes TO SIXES AND SEVENS—an universal saturnalia seems to be proclaimed in my peaceful and orderly family.

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  SIX OF ONE AND HALF A DOZEN OF THE OTHER, phr. (common).—Much alike; not a pin to choose between them; ‘never a barrel the better herring.’

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