colloq. [f. FIVE + -ER1.]
1. A five-pound note. In U.S. a five-dollar note.
1853. Whyte Melville, Digby Grand, i. Spooner … loses a five-pound note, or, as he calls it, a fiver.
1894. Doyle, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, 62. ‘I’ll lay you a fiver,’ said I, ‘that when he has my offer you’ll never so much as hear from him again.’
2. Anything that counts as five (as a hit for five at cricket).
3. Thieves’ slang. A fifth (term of imprisonment).
1872. Daily News, 27 April, 3/4. They announced that they were in for a ‘fiver’ or a ‘sixer,’ according to the number of their visits to a particular gaol.
