a. (sb.)
1. Valued at, costing, or amounting to ten pence; sold at tenpence the piece, dozen, hundred, pound, quart, gallon, yard, or other customary unit (see also b); also in contempt: cf. twopenny. Tenpenny piece = B. 1. Tenpenny-worth, the amount of anything to be bought for tenpence.
1592. Arden of Feversham, V. i. All the tenpenny ale-houses would stand euery morning with a quart pot in their hand, saying, ‘will it please your worship drinke?’
1607. Dekker & Wester, Westw. Hoe, IV. ii. Wks. 1873, II. 339. If all the great Turks Concubins were but like thee, the ten penny-infidell should neuer neede [etc.].
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. V. vii. 141. Lieutenant Felton … made a thrust with a common tenpeny knife … at the Duke.
a. 1668. Davenant, News fr. Plymouth, Wks. (1673), 2. A cloth Of Network edg’d with a Ten-penny-Lace.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., i. ¶ 36. A yard of ten-penny stuff.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., ii. A tenpenny-worth of cord.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, xxi. She had given him a tenpenny-piece.
1875–7. Ruskin, Morn. in Florence, Pref. I have done more work than you will ever know of, to make them good ten-pennyworths to you.
b. Tenpenny nail: originally, a nail sold at tenpence a hundred: see PENNY 10. Now, vaguely, a nail of large size.
1426–8. [see PENNY 10].
1486. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 16. Xpeny nailes.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (Camden), 172. To make the whole matter fast and sure, as it were with a tenpenny nail.
1666. W. Boghurst, Loimographia (1894), 66. Stomacks like Ostriches able to digest a tenpenny nail.
1826. Scott, Woodst., xii. Were his nails tenpenny nails, and his teeth as long as those of a harrow.
B. sb. 1. A piece of money: = TENPENCE. a. The token of the Bank of Ireland for 10d., issued in 1805, 1806, and 1813. b. A franc or lira.
1824. A. Thomson, in Life & Min., iv. (1869), 217. A gentleman … sent me seven ten-pennies—5s. 10d. Irish.
1825. Hist. Little Pat, in Houlston Tracts, I. No. 11. 12. Having received a present of a tenpenny from a gentleman.
1904. Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v. Ten, (Guernsey) When I get a bad tenpenny I put it in my purse and pass it.
2. a. A tenpenny nail. b. A child’s school-book (originally) costing tenpence: formerly the third book used in teaching to read. Sc.
1820. J. H. Reynolds, Fancy (1906), 22. We’ve driven a hundred tenpennies already.
1893. Crockett, Stickit Minister, iii. 35. They stammered like a boy new into the tenpenny.
