halfpenny

[ hey-puh-nee, heyp-nee ]

noun,plural half·pen·nies for 1; half·pence [hey-puhns] /ˈheɪ pəns/ for 2.
  1. a bronze coin of the United Kingdom, equal to half a penny: use phased out in 1984.

  2. the sum of half a penny.

adjective
  1. of the price or value of a halfpenny.

  2. of little value; worthless: a halfpenny matter.

  1. British Informal. (of newspapers) sensational, especially morbidly or offensively so.

Origin of halfpenny

1
First recorded in 1225–75, halfpenny is from the Middle English word halfpeny, halpeny. See half, penny

Words Nearby halfpenny

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use halfpenny in a sentence

  • The price of tobacco accordingly dropped from fourpence a pound to a halfpenny per pound by 1667.

  • Nothing further transpired, however, and the readers of the halfpenny press for once were deprived of their sensation.

    The Double Four | E. Phillips Oppenheim
  • When I was a boy, such a thing was out of the question, as to each paper a fourpenny-halfpenny stamp was attached.

    East Anglia | J. Ewing Ritchie
  • Why, in tossing up a halfpenny, do we reckon it equally probable that we shall throw cross or pile?

  • The flowers are lovely; you can buy a big bunch of violets for a son, and sou is the peasant word for a halfpenny.

British Dictionary definitions for halfpenny

halfpenny

ha'penny

/ (ˈheɪpnɪ, for sense 1 ˈhɑːfˌpɛnɪ) /


noun
  1. Also called: half plural -pennies a small British coin worth half a new penny, withdrawn from circulation in 1985

  2. plural -pennies an old British coin worth half an old penny

  1. plural -pence the sum represented by half a penny

  2. plural -pence something of negligible value

  3. (modifier) having the value or price of a halfpenny

  4. (modifier) of negligible value

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012