in two

English

Prepositional phrase

in two

1. (set phrase) Into two parts.

   Synonyms: in half, in twain; see also Thesaurus:asunder

   • 1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Kaa’s Hunting”, in The Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC, page 47:

     They carry a branch half a day, meaning to do great things with it, and then they snap it in two.

   • 1900, Andrew Lang, “The Twin Brothers”, in The Grey Fairy Book:

     [I]f you can cleave it in two with one stroke of your sword, I will give you my daughter to wife.

   • 2011 January 10, Alex Perry, “Can Sudan Split Without Falling Apart?”, in Time, retrieved 23 July 2014:

     [S]outherners are expected to vote overwhelmingly to carve Africa's biggest country in two.

2. (theater) Performed further back than "in one", but still not fully upstage.

Hyponyms

• asunder

Translations

into two parts

• Dutch: in tweeën
• Finnish: kahtia (fi)
• German: entzwei (de)
• Greek: στα δύο (sta dýo)

  Ancient: δίχα (díkha)

• Irish: leathanach (ga)
• Russian: попола́м (ru) (popolám), напопола́м (ru) (napopolám); на полови́ны (na polovíny)
• Swedish: itu (sv)

References

• “in two”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• in tow