four-and-nine

English

Etymology

From the price of four shillings and ninepence, at which a once noted advertising hat-maker sold his hats.

Noun

four-and-nine (plural four-and-nines)

1. (UK, slang, obsolete) A cheap hat.
   • 1850, William Mark Clark, Clark's Orphean Warbler (page 424): Four and Nine Tile (song)

     Around me young and old, / Take this advice of mine, / When you want a hat, / Don't buy a four and nine.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary