four

Meanings

1. 1
   num

   A numerical value equal to 4; the number after three and before five; two plus two. This many dots (••••)

   There are four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.

2. 2
   noun

   Anything measuring four units, as length.

   Do you have any more fours? I want to make this a little taller.

3. 3
   noun

   Four o'clock.

   Letters to Sheffield are despatched every morning at six, and arrive every afternoon at ten minutes past four.

4. 4
   noun

   A person who is four years old.

   I'll take the threes, fours and fives and go to the playground.

5. 5
   noun

   Four-man sweep racing shell, with or without a coxswain.

   The team bought a new four last season.

6. 6
   noun

   A four-pennyworth of spirits.

   I was a-strollin' down, thinkin' between ourselves how uncommon handy a four of gin hot would be, when suddenly the glint of a light caught my eye in the window of that same house.

7. 7
   adj

   being one more than three

8. 8
   noun

   a playing card or domino or die whose upward face shows four pips

Etymology

PIE word *kʷetwóres From Middle English four, from Old English fēower, from Proto-West Germanic *feuwar, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from previous pre-Grimm *petwṓr, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr, the neuter form of *kʷetwóres. Doublet of cuatro and quatre. Cognates include Scots fower, Saterland Frisian fjauer, West Frisian fjouwer, Dutch vier, German Low German veer, German vier, Norwegian Bokmål and Danish fire, Swedish fyra, Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌳𐍅𐍉𐍂 (fidwōr) and, more distantly, Latin quattuor (whence Spanish cuatro, French quatre), Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares), Irish ceathair, Welsh pedwa…