four by two n.
1. (also three be two) a Jew.
![]() | N&Q 12 Ser. IX 346: Four-by-Two. [...] Used also to express a ‘Jew’. | |
![]() | Gilt Kid 69: ‘I had to order a sandwich for you.’ [...] ‘That’s all right so long as it’s not ham. [...] I’m a four-be two, you see.’. | |
![]() | Reported Safe Arrival 10: Harry was a Jew. In his own phrase: a ‘tin-lid.’ Otherwise, a ‘four-by-two,’ a ‘Kangaroo,’ or a ‘five-to-two’. | |
![]() | None But the Lonely Heart 265: Don’t take long to wipe up a couple of Three Be Twos, do it? | |
![]() | Ghost Squad 24: Thieves’ argot, spoken properly, is a foreign language which needs to be learned [...] Among the words and phrases derived from rhyming slang are: [...] Sarah Soo, Four-by-two or Kangar (Kangaroo) means a Jew. | |
![]() | Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 78: Lew Silver, a well known artistic four by two. | |
![]() | I’m a Jack, All Right 128: Joe was munching industriously at a huge piece of pork. ‘I’d have hated to have been born a four-by-two and missed out on this’. | |
![]() | Fletcher’s Book of Rhy. Sl. 27: A rich four-by-twoish merchant. | |
![]() | Muvver Tongue 53: Jews are [...] four-by-twos. | |
![]() | Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 28: Fourbies (4 x 2) [...] Jew. | |
![]() | Amaze Your Friends (2019) 22: ‘He’d be of the Jewish faith? [...] your four-by-two tends to be skilled at this sort of thing’. | (con. late 1950s)|
![]() | Empty Wigs (t/s) 842: ‘Yids. Four by twos. Oven dodgers. Four wheel -’. |
2. (usu. Aus./N.Z.) a prison warder [= screw n.1 (2c)].
![]() | Fletcher’s Book of Rhy. Sl. 24: Who are you calling a four-by-two? | |
![]() | Big Huey 248: four-by-two (n) Prison officer. | |
![]() | Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 28: Fourbies (4 x 2) Screw (warder). | |
![]() | ‘Siriusly’ Speaking in Just Us (H.M. Prison, Beechworth, Vic.) Dec. 26/1: four by twon. Eight; screw [Rhyming slang]. | |
![]() | Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Four by two. A prisoner officer. Rhyming slang for screw [...] Sometimes just fourbees. | |
![]() | The Joy (2015) [ebook] The four-by-twos do their best but they can’t watch everyone twenty-four hours a day. | |
![]() | NZEJ 13 29: four-by-two n. Prison guard - rhyming slang for screw. | ‘Boob Jargon’ in|
![]() | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] : four-by-two (also fourby) n. a prison officer. |