stiver n.
1. something of little value; thus in cash terms, a penny.
‘The Jovial Companions’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 85: And they wou’d go Travel the North Country, / Without ever a stiver of Mony. | ||
Honoria and Mammon I i: It wo’n’t be Ten hundred thousand pistols to a stiver. | ||
‘The Jovial Companions’ in Bagford Ballads (1878) I 51: [as cit. c.1630]. | ||
Constant Couple I i: I there had a Dutch whore for five stivers. | ||
Penkethman’s Jests 97: The former wou’d, at Night, frequently pick his Pocket to the last Stiver. | ||
Tristram Shandy (1949) 255: ’Tis not worth a single stiver. | ||
The Minor 29: All sense of honour is gone, not a stiver stirring. | ||
Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 319: And for a stiver / He quickly hir’d another driver. | ||
Adventures of a Speculist II 182: These foreigners could pick every stiver out of a Bubble’s pocket with such extreme politeness. | ||
Poems (1804) 75: Bog-trotters, noted for bravadoes; / And vagabonds not worth a stiver. | ‘Political Pepper-Pot’||
Sporting Mag. Aug. XVIII 247/2: These foreigners can pluck every stiver out of a bubble’s pocket. | ||
(con. 18C) Guy Mannering (1999) 191: Dirk Hatteraick never touched a stiver of his rents. | ||
Haunted Inn I ii: I have not a stiver! | ||
N.Y. Transcript 27 Oct. 2/5: I’m [...] pockets to let, used up to the stump, not got a stiver. | ||
Sixteen-String Jack 115: Catch yourself without a stiver in your purse—where would you find a friend then [...] you could rely on for a sovereign? | ||
Fast Man 7:1 n.p.: Moses, with a shrug, regretted that he had not the money. ‘Tings are so bad chust now, ma tear, I haven’t a steiver in the house’. | ||
Twice Round the Clock 165: There is an insolent burgher of Bedfordbury, who says I owe him certain stivers. | ||
Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 67/1: Let uz turn up t’ blarsted consarn, any way [...] we hain’t makkin’ a blarsted ‘steever’ wi’ t’ crib? | ||
in Sportsman 15 Dec. 2/1: Notes on News [...] ‘I always accounted my owners [...] for every stiver’. | ||
Won in a Canter II 28: ‘Just a thousand pounds [...] not a stiver more’. | ||
Knocknagow 307: The devil a stiver she’ll get. | ||
Mohawks III 155: This poor wretch from Exeter had not a stiver about him. | ||
Dead Bird (Sydney) 17 Aug. 5/1: Jones had not a stiver in his pocket. | ||
Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 25 Oct. 11/2: I haven’t got a ‘steever’. | ||
🎵 ‘Old yer ’orse, sir,’ cries a youngster, poorly fed and poorly clad / ‘Mind it for yer for a stiver’ . | [perf. Vesta Tilley] In London||
Truth (Sydney) Feb. 1/7: I orter ast the Missus and her Mother to ’ave some beer [...] and I ‘aven’t a bloomin’ stever. | ||
Tales of the Early Days 143: It’s such chaps as you old codger — with any amount o’ heart, but not a stiver’s worth of bodily strength to feed th’ blood with. | ||
Houndsditch Day by Day 47: Oh that be d—d [...] I ain’t a goin’ to pay a stever over sixty. | ||
Marvel 21 Dec. 15: Avin no welf abowt me bar the stiver wich ide kollekted off a smoller boy. | ||
Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Nov. 4/8: [I] must, with every stiver spent, / Confess my thoughts are all intent / To earn a guinea. | ||
Mop Fair 91: The subsequent draining month’s ‘rest’ [...] while one is not winning a single steever. | ||
‘A “Push” Story’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Sept. 17/1: ‘Find me in fags, if they didn’t drag out a double-’eaded stiver ’n’ git things to a bubble’. | ||
Marvel 22 Jan. 3: ‘Have you any money?’ I asked. ‘Not a stiver,’ he answered. | ||
Truth (Perth) 16 Apr. 6/3: Never got a blue bean for it, / Nor a half a stiever sure. | ||
Memoirs of a ‘Sky Pilot’ 253: ‘Stever,’ for a coin. | ||
Boy in Bush 291: I haven’t any cash. Not a stiver, Ma! | ||
Tramping with Tramps 135: She ought ter give us a stever. | ||
Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Stiver: Penny. | ||
Down Donkey Row 12: Steiver – Penny. | ||
Cockney 290: A parallel problem would doubtless have arisen had the request been made for a steever. |
2. in pl., money.
Snarleyyow 155: So much money too, they say. I don’t know how many stivers and guilders she will have by-and-bye. | ||
Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 7: Stiver - Piece of money. | ||
Bluefield Daily Tel. (WV) 11 Mar. 4/2: In addition [...] the following [names for money] are given: [...] Stivers. | ||
Und. Speaks n.p.: Stevers, money. |
In compounds
impoverished.
, , | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
Cobbett’s Wkly Political Register 24 Jan. 13/1: This most equitable act, in favour of those who, like myslf, are somewhat stiver-cramped. | ||
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | ||
Eng. Spy 1 255: Whether [...] well blunted or stiver cramped. | ||
Edinbury Gleaner 6: I am at present what is vulgarly called stiver cramped. | ||
Satirist (London) 17 Jan. 7/2: I can't hadvance the reglar, as you call hit, till due — which will be six wheeks and upvords—as I ham stiver crampt. | ||
Wkly Standard (Raleigh, NC) 12 Feb. 2: [T]he past profligate expenditures of the State and its present stiver-cramped condition. | ||
Huddersfield Chron. 6 Feb. 3/4: ‘I am at present, what is vulgarly called “stiver-cramped”’. | ||
Sun (NY) 17 Feb. n.p.: The town raff and the barees, well blunted or stiver-cramped against dun or don, nob or bigwig. | ||
Dublin Eve. Post 12 Oct. 3/6: As grand juries are likely to be stiver-cramped for a season [...] other means [...] must be sought out. |