shilling

  • noun 1 a former British coin and monetary unit equal to one twentieth of a pound or twelve pence. 2 the basic monetary unit of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

  — PHRASES not the full shilling Brit. informal not very clever. take the King’s (or Queen’s) shilling Brit. enlist as a soldier. with reference to the former practice of paying a shilling to a new recruit.

  — ORIGIN Old English.

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