Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a cardinal number, eight plus one.
- a symbol for this number, as 9 or IX.
- a set of this many persons or things.
- a baseball team.
- a playing card with nine pips.
- the Nine, the Muses.
adjective
- amounting to nine in number.
- dressed to the nines, looking one’s best; dressed smartly, splendidly, etc.: All the girls were dressed to the nines for the party.
noun
- the cardinal number that is the sum of one and eightSee also number (def. 1)
- a numeral, 9, IX, etc, representing this number
- something representing, represented by, or consisting of nine units, such as a playing card with nine symbols on it
- Also: nine o’clock nine hours after noon or midnightthe play starts at nine
- dressed to the nines or dressed up to the nines informal elaborately dressed
- 999 (in Britain) the telephone number of the emergency services
- nine to five normal office hourshe works nine to five; a nine-to-five job
determiner
-
- amounting to ninenine days
- (as pronoun)nine of the ten are ready
Old English nigen, from Proto-Germanic *niwun (cf. Old Saxon nigun, Old Frisian niugun, Old Norse niu, Swedish nio, Middle Dutch neghen, Dutch negen, Old High German niun, German neun, Gothic niun “nine”), from PIE newn “nine” (cf. Sanskrit nava, Avestan nava, Greek ennea, Albanian nende, Latin novem (with change of -n- to -m- by analogy of septem, decem), Lithuanian devnyi, Old Church Slavonic deveti (the Balto-Slavic forms by dissimilation of -n- to -d-), Old Irish noin, Welsh naw).
Nine to five “the average workday” is attested from 1935. Nine days has been proverbial since 14c. for the time which a wonder or novelty holds attention.
see dressed to kill (to the nines); on cloud nine; possession is nine points of the law; whole nine yards.