Meaning & use
Tenpenny
Last updated
Denoting a size of nail, roughly three inches long, historically priced at ten pence per hundred; also, cheap or of little value.
See it in a sentence
He grabbed a box of tenpenny nails to frame the shed's walls.
She dismissed the souvenir as a tenpenny trinket not worth the asking price.
A note on using this word
The name reflects an old English pricing system in which nail sizes were named for their cost per hundred, such as fourpenny, sixpenny, and tenpenny nails.
Words with a similar meaning
cheaptrifling
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