Meaning of tenpence to the shilling | Babel Free

Definitions

Mentally deficient.

UK, dated, slang

Examples

“I knew that chap; but he never was more nor tenpence to the shilling. He was one of the men, we say, who fell out of his cradle and knocked his head.”

“He felt no curiosity about news or daily events, and was getting to be looked on as 'tenpence to the shilling' in the head.”

“Whenever he did manage to engineer a meeting she always treated him as if he was only tenpence to the shilling, a few bricks short of a load, as if he needed another brain cell to qualify as a plant.”

CEFR level