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Forty Winks

.

A short nap. Forty is an indefinite number, meaning a few. Thus, we say, “A, B, C, and forty more.” Coriolaʹnus says, “I could beat forty of them” (iii. 1). (See Forty.)

“The slave had forty thousand lives.”



“I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers

Could not, with all their quantity of love,

Make up my sum.”


 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Forlot or Firlot
Forma Pauperis (Latin, Under plea of poverty)
Fortiter in Re (Latin)
Fortunate Islands
Fortunatus
Fortune
Fortunio
Forty
Forty Stripes save One
Forty Thieves
Forty Winks
Forty-five
Forwards (Marshal)
Foscari (Francis)
Foss (Corporal)
Foss-way
Fossa et Furca [pit and gallows]
Fossils
Foster Brother or Sister
Fou Drunk
Foul Proof