# deuce
## English
### Etymology 1

From Middle English dewes (“two”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French deus, from Latin duo. The word was used by Ford to describe a model of car they made in 1932 due to it being a two-seater.

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /djuːs/, /d͡ʒuːs/
* (US) IPA: /dus/
** Audio (US):(file)
* (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA: /ˈdjʉs/, /ˈd͡ʒʉs/
* Rhymes: -uːs

#### Noun

deuce (plural deuces)
* (card games) A card with two pips, one of four in a standard deck of playing cards.
    Synonym: two
    1948 January 1, “Deck of Cards” (track 20), in Famous Country Music Makers‎, performed by Tex Ritter:You see, Sir, when I look at the Ace it reminds me that there is but one God. The deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into two parts; the Old and New Testaments. And when I see the trey I think of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
* (dice games) A side of a die with two spots.
* (dice games) A cast of dice totalling two.
* The number two.
** (Canada, US, slang) A piece of excrement; number two.
** (Canada, slang) A two-year prison sentence.
*** 1988 December 25, Eric Peterson, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 14:Bisexual male, 28, doing a deuce in a segregated housing unit due to positive HIV test result, seeks correspondence from both genders.
* A hand gesture consisting of a raised index and middle finger, a peace sign.
* (tennis, table tennis, volleyball) A tied game where either player can win by scoring two consecutive points.
* (baseball) A curveball.
* A 1932 Ford.
** 1973 January 5, “Blinded by the Light” (track 1), in Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., performed by Bruce Springsteen:And she was blinded by the light/Oh, cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night.
** 1978, Joe Mayall, “Driving Impression: Reproduction Deuce Hiboy”, in Rod Action, page 26:
** 2012, Pat Ganahl, Lost Hot Rods II: More Remarkable Stories of How They Were Found, page 62:It belonged to “the 1932 guy,” who had four or five Deuces sitting in his yard.
* (in the plural) Two-barrel (twin choke) carburetors (in the phrase three deuces: an arrangement on a common intake manifold).
* (restaurants, slang) A table seating two diners.
* (slang, archaic) A twopence coin.
** 2010, James Lambie, The Story of Your Life, page 139:It was a shame of the chalk-takers to take their fee without even scoring one little mark; but chalk-takers are inexorable and must be paid their twopence. 'Down with your deuces', was the demand after each pair of birds had competed.
* (euphemistic, slang) douche

##### Synonyms

* (piece of excrement): See Thesaurus:defecation
* (restaurant) two-top

##### Coordinate terms

* (dice) ace, trey, cater, cinque, sice

##### Derived terms

* acey-deucey
* big deuce
* chuck the deuces
* deuce coupe
* deuce court
* deuce less
* deuces wild
* deuce-to-seven lowball
* drop a deuce
* play the deuce with
* pop a deuce

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

##### See also

Playing cards in English · playing cards (layout · text) :
| ace | deuce, two | three | four | five | six | seven |
| eight | nine | ten | jack, knave | queen | king | joker |

### Etymology 2

Compare Late Latin dusius (“phantom, specter”); Scottish Gaelic taibhs, taibhse (“apparition, ghost”); or from Old French deus (“God”), from Latin deus (compare deity).

#### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /djuːs/
* (US, Canada) IPA: /duːs/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -uːs

#### Noun

deuce (plural deuces)
* (epithet) The Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger.
    Alternative form: Deuce
** 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, Catherine:Love is a bodily infirmity […] which breaks out the deuce knows how or why
** 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him.
** 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:"Why, Job, you old son of a gun, where the deuce have we got to now - eh?"
** 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 65:Still bemused by the inexplicable apparition of Podson on that spot, Bradly growled, "How the dooce did you get here?"
* Synonym of devil (“something awkward or difficult”)
    We had a deuce of a time getting here.

##### Derived terms

* deuced
* the deuce you say
* what the deuce

##### Translations
### References

* (etymology) “deuce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* educe