deuce

«deuce» in Mova's school dictionary: the score when both players have 40 points, so one must… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (deuce, deuces); exclamation (old-fashioned)

meaning for a pupil

1) In tennis, deuce is the score when both players have 40 points, so one must win two points in a row to win the game. tree →

2) A playing card or a dice face with the number two on it. tree →

3) (old-fashioned) A mild word for the devil, used to show surprise or annoyance: «What the deuce?» tree →

sense in the lessons

Used in sport (tennis), card games and old-fashioned stories. It tells the reader the score is level in tennis, or about the number two in games.

examples

• The score was deuce, and the crowd went quiet. tree →
• After three deuces, she finally won the game. tree →
• He played the deuce of hearts. tree →
• I rolled a deuce, so I moved two squares. tree →
• «What the deuce is going on here?» asked the old captain. tree →
• They went back to deuce again and again. tree →
• Where the deuce can the house be? tree →

note

In tennis the order is love (0), 15, 30, 40, then deuce if tied at 40; after deuce comes «advantage». The swear use is old and mild, found in old books. In card maths a deuce counts as 2.

In the corpora

• "The deuce", in old exclamations like "what the deuce?", means the Devil.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «deuce» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.