[TWENTY A. 1 b.)
1. A sheet folded into 24 leaves; a form of type for printing a sheet to be so folded (quot. 1683); a book in which the sheets are thus folded. (Always in pl.; usually in phr. in twenty-fours.)
1673. Term Catal., 6 May. Valerii Maximi dictorum factorumque memorabilium Libri IX. In Twenty-fours.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxiv. ¶ 15. Any Form Imposed like Twelves, as Twenty fours.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xv. (Roxb.), 23/2. Other bookes … whether they be … octavo’s, sixteens or twentyfoures.
1715. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., I. 11. The Holy Scriptures, collectively, have been often bound in all those little forms of Twelves, Sixteens and Twenty-fours.
1771. Luckombe, Hist. Print., 419. A Sheet of Twenty-fours, with Two Signatures. Ibid., 420. A Half Sheet of Long Twenty-fours.
2. A period of 24 hours; a day. nonce-use.
1735. Berkeley, Querist, § 125. To pass the twenty-fours with tolerable ease.
See also TWENTY A. 2 d, B. 3, C.
