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forty Definition

forty (fôrt′ē)

adjective

four times ten

Etymology: ME fourti < OE feowertig, akin to Ger vierzig, Goth fidwor tigjus: see four & -ty

noun pl. -·ties

the cardinal number between thirty-nine and forty-one; 40; XL

forty Idioms

the forties

the numbers or years, as of a century, from forty through forty-nine

forty Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • hit: Goldfrapp add a fourth top forty hit from their ' Black Cherry ' album with the title track scoring a new entry at no.28.
  • turn: Man's been dead ten years now and Rebecca's turned forty still muttering something about eating her carrots and being strong.
  • age: He was hanged on the 13th August 1872 at Maidstone aged forty two.
  • make: It's good to have them back, tho if this makes the top forty it will be doing well.
  • have: A site that has forty or more links will only hurt you.
  • take: You're saying you're taking forty along, how did you whittle it down?

Adjective modifier

  • mid: Case study 1 Our first case study concerns a man who came to us in his mid forties.
  • hungry: Because of poor harvests in England, the 1840s have often been called the ` hungry forties ' .
  • least: The things appeared to be at least forty thousand feet in the air - perhaps much higher.
  • top: Goldfrapp add a fourth top forty hit from their ' Black Cherry ' album with the title track scoring a new entry at no.28.
  • late: Nick Redfern is putting his case for what happened at a small farm outside Roswell, New Mexico in the late forties.
  • early: All of these ex students would be in their late thirties or early forties.

Modifies a noun

  • shilling: Another Court called the County Arrest, which does the same thing for sums under forty shillings.
  • percent: Forty percent of its staff has been laid off.
  • wink: At the back of the class Jennifer was given a right ticking off for having forty winks.
  • minute: The actress playing Mina suddenly refuses to continue, forty minutes into the film.
  • year: Jesus expected the miracle to end a forty year cosmic battle, assuming him to be an Essene.
  • pound: An extra five hundred and forty pounds invested for every pupil.

Preposition: per

  • cent: Forty per cent of women spend over 50 hours a week caring for someone living with them 488.

Noun used with modifier

  • day: And he still has his shorts from his England days forty years ago, and his shirt.
forty Quotes

Between thirty and forty a man may have reached the height of discretionwithout having tumbledover thetop and into the feather-bed of correctitude.

—Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold

Every man over forty is a scoundrel.

—Shaw, George Bernard

Fair, fat, and forty.

—Scott, Sir Walter

Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

—Bible (NewTestament)

But he was never, well, What I call A Sportsman: For forty days He went out into the desert öAnd never shot anything.

—Sitwell, Sir (Francis) Osbert

To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.

—Holmes, Oliver Wendell

This is what forty looks like.We've been lying so long who would know?

—Steinem, Gloria

Y si evitas la s|¤filis, siguiendo la sabia profilaxia, al llegar los cuarenta ira¤  s sintiendo un principio de ataxia. And if you manage to avoid syphilis by following a wise course of prophylaxis, when you turn forty you will feel the beginnings of ataxia.

—Sillitoe, Alan