two-to-one

English

Noun

two-to-one

  1. (UK, slang, obsolete) The pawnbroker's sign of three balls.
    • 1819, Felix Mac Donough, The Hermit in London; or, Sketches of English Manners, page 182:
      “A pawnbroker!” cried Dick, with a loud laugh; whereupon the two-to-one lady blushed up to the eyes and whispered to her friend, “How could they know us?”
    • 1877, John Diprose, New standard song book and reciter, page 194:
      A song I'm going to sing you, / And presently I'll bring you, / Where your conscience I hope won't sting you, / — At the sign of the Two-to-one!

References
  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
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