five-by-five

• five by five

From radio communications phrase dating from the 1950s. The first five referred to a rating of signal clarity, the other to reception strength. See Signal strength and readability report on Wikipedia.Wikipedia .

five-by-five (not comparable)

1. Loud and clear.
2. Fine; OK.

five-by-five (plural five-by-fives)

1. (basketball) A performance in which a player accumulates five points in each of five statistical categories (points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks) in a single game.
2. (slang) Someone whose body is roughly shaped like a square; a short and fat person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fat person

   • 1953, Warren Eyster, Ear From the Customary Skies, New York, N.Y.: Random House, page 335:

     "Yeah? No stuff? You, a date? Wad yuh know. What is she, a five-by-five?"

   • 1998, Jeremiah Healy, The Only Good Lawyer: A John Francis Cuddy Mystery, New York, N.Y. […]: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 71:

     "The muscle was Oscar Huong, a real Mr. five-by-five. Father supposedly a black Marine boxing champion. The brains was Nguyen Trinh—or 'Nugey,' for short. He had no idea who his daddy was."

• Jonathon Green (2024) “five-by-five n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang