What is another word for halfpenny?

Pronunciation: [hˈɑːfpənˌi] (IPA)

Halfpenny is a term used to describe a small British coin that was in circulation from the 18th century until 1984. This low value coin was often used to purchase small items or to round out larger transactions. Some synonyms for the word "halfpenny" include the terms ha'penny, half-cent, or half-penny piece. While the halfpenny is no longer in use, it has played a significant role in British currency history, and its legacy can still be seen in phrases such as "not worth a halfpenny," among others. Regardless of name, the halfpenny was an important piece of currency in its time and has contributed to the rich and fascinating history of British coins.

What are the hypernyms for Halfpenny?

A hypernym is a word with a broad meaning that encompasses more specific words called hyponyms.

Usage examples for Halfpenny

As a child he played in the ditch and hedge, or crept through into the meadow and searched in the spring for violets to offer to the passers-by; or he swung on the gate in the lane and held it open for the farmers in their gigs, in hope of a halfpenny.
"Hodge and His Masters"
Richard Jefferies
He published all the picture-books of the day; and, out of his abundant love for children, he charged "nothing for either paper or print, and only a penny-halfpenny for the binding!"
"Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists"
Washington Irving
This explains why the post-office is able to forward a letter from any part of the kingdom to any other part for a penny or even a halfpenny.
"Political economy"
W. Stanley Jevons

Famous quotes with Halfpenny

  • All over London as one walks, one everywhere, in the season, sees oranges to sell; and they are in general sold tolerably cheap, one and even sometimes two for a halfpenny; or, in our money, threepence.
    Karl Philipp Moritz
  • Gordon put his hand against the swing door. He even pushed it open a few inches. The warm fog of smoke and beer slipped through the crack. A familiar, reviving smell; nevertheless as he smelled it his nerve failed him. No! Impossible to go in. He turned away. He couldn't go shoving into that saloon bar with only fourpence halfpenny in his pocket. Never let other people buy your drinks for you! The first commandment of the moneyless. He made off down the dark pavement.
    George Orwell
  • Is it life? I would rather be without it, for there is quare small utility in it. You cannot eat it or drink it or smoke it in your pipe, it does not keep the rain out and it is a poor armful in the dark if you strip it and take it to bed with you after a night's porter when you are shivering with the red passion. It is a great mistake and a thing better done without, like bed jars and foreign bacon. Many a man has spent a hundred years trying to get the dimensions of it and when he understands it at last and entertains the certain pattern of it in his head, be the hokey he takes to his bed and dies. He dies like a poisoned sheepdog. There is nothing so dangerous you can't smoke it, nobody will give you tuppence halfpenny for the half of it, and it kills you in the wind-up. It is a quare contraption, very dangerous, a certain death-trap.
    Brian O'Nolan
  • When I think of the thousands and thousands of pounds which have been spent by the National Art Collections Fund on the purchase of paintings—some of questionable merit and dubious condition—by Old Masters already represented in the National Gallery—it makes me boil with rage to think that in 1905 it would not contribute one halfpenny towards the purchase for the nation of a picture by one of the Great French Masters of the late nineteenth century. It was a short-sighted policy, but the Fund's inertia and snobbish ineptitude are entirely characteristic of the habits of art-officialdom in England.
    Frank Rutter

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