trey-bit, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

trey-bit n.

also tray bit, tray, trey, tray-piece

(orig. Aus./N.Z.)

1. a threepenny piece.

1899		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Jan. Red Page: [Letter from Loafer, Tauranga] Following are other local money-names [...] 3d. – thrum, half-tiz, tray or tray-piece.
1902		Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 181: Den I socked me bit upon ’er— / Ev’ry tray-bit I could bring.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 99: Ther Elder dug in ’n’ brought up er ‘andful iv jingle, carefully picket out er tray, ’n’ rewarded me.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 98: ‘Well, a tray bit won’t break me,’ said Chook, producing threepence from his pocket.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 138: A trey for a jitney – less’n two cents per smoke.
1924		Gippsland Times (Vic.) 15 Sept. 1/4: A parson who will [...] / Get him sraight to heaven for a tray-bit on the plate.
1929		Narromine News (NSW) 25 Oct. 9/5: Sing a song o’ threepence, / Here’s a nice surprise; / Four or five thousand / Teachers get a rise / Get an extra ‘tray-bit’ / Every afternoon.
1931		‘English Und. Sl.’ in Variety 8 Apr. n.p.: Tray — Threepence.
1937		Mirror (Perth) 18 Dec. 25/5: Thrifty parents can stop saving their ‘thrummers,’ ‘truts,’ ‘tray-bits,’ or whatever happens to be the current vernacular for three penny bits.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 162: It was only a tray bit that I dropped.
1944		A. Marshall These Are My People (1957) 124: This bloke could fight on a tray bit.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 228: ‘There’s a spare threepence.’ [...] ‘I’m too crook to worry about a trey. You can have that.’.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 69: She wanted to say something, to tell this silly old coot that what she knew about life could be written on a trey bit.
1953		D. Cusack Caddie 225: I thought of them forking out their hard-earned treys and zacks and bobs and nearly cried.
1955		F.B. Vickers Mirage (1958) 291: ‘Well, it’s the old tray-bit!’ he cried. ‘The old Trissy! She does it for three-pence.’.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 241/1: tray (trezzie, trizzie) – a threepence; sometimes, three years in jail.
1959		D. Niland Gold in the Streets (1966) 201: A man’d have to dissect you to find a trey bit.
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 15: Looks at a trey-bit four times before ’e spends ut.
1973		(con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 38: Next year yous’ll be diging at a trey a bag.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 91: trey was the term for pre-decimalisation threepence also used in card-playing for a three of any suite.

2. a term of contempt for an insignificant person.

1941

Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

In compounds

Treybit Peter (n.)

(Aus.) a gambling game similar to two-up but using three threepenny pieces thrown from a glass.

1922		Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld) 13 Dec. 11/6: The police this morning made a surprise visit to the wharf laborers’ picking up shed, where the game of ‘trey bit peter’.
1939		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 28 Aug. 11/6: Use of a private residence at Alderley as a ‘trey bit peter’ school was detailed on the Police Court yesterday, when 19 men were charged [...] ‘Trey Bit Peter,’ [...] is a game with three 3d. pieces thrown from a dice box, and results are determined similarly as in two-up, by heads or tails.
1951		Brisbane Teleg. 27 Oct. 2/5: They were charged with having [...] played at an unlawful game, ‘Treybit Peter’ [...] when police entered the shed they found the men in a circle around a coir mat on which were a glass and three threepenny pieces.